Tighten Those Straps One More Time
by Arch-trainer
Summary: Tristan, son of a gym leader and a dual-type pokemon specialist is on a journey through Hoenn with Gary Oak after beating him in a gym battle. Chap 22 up- The rescue plan goes into effect, but will they all be in time to save Tristan and Flannery?
1. Handing Over the Reins

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or anything that is under their jurisdiction. I own the Chillar family though!

**Chapter 1-**

"Tristan, this is the third time I've called you- get down here for breakfast! It's almost 10:00! The pancakes are getting cold!" a loud female voice shouted.

"All right, I'm coming! Jeez, calm down." a male voice shouted back.

Tristan Chillar's day started off being called down to a breakfast he didn't feel like seeing this early. He is a decent looking boy (so he's been told) just past his sixteenth birthday. He is a bit on the shorter side (five-seven) with wavy, medium length brown hair and steel-blue eyes.

Tristan is the son of Sophie Chillar. She happens to be the Azure town gym leader in the great region of Hoenn. Her specialty is ice-type pokemon. She is about 43 years old now, but has a young face with long blonde hair and deep blue eyes. In addition to his mom, Tristan lives with his father and two younger brothers. His father builds and sells boats, a business _his_ father had started right on the shores of the town way back when. His brothers are former Pokémon trainers themselves whose journeys did not work out, and now just worked in the gym and boat shop and went to school.

"Well, look what has arisen! How are you today?" she asked.

"Good." Tristan grunted.

"Great! Are you going to be eating?"

"I'll eat later."

Over intercom "Sophie? You have a challenger here."

"All right Jen, I'll be right there. Tell them to get three pokemon ready. (shuts off intercom) Well, time to start the day! Put this stuff in the fridge for later."

"OK, good luck mom."

"Thanks sweetie"

"Don't call me that- I'm sixteen!" he called out as she left.

Such was life we you lived in a gym. Challengers came on their own schedule so adjustments had to be made in whatever you were doing to accommodate them. Though Sophie did the best she could to spend as much time with her husband and three sons as possible, being a gym leader had certain responsibilities that just could not be ignored. Tristan rather liked his life, though he wouldn't complain if he got to go out and travel again.

Azure Town is a small town, slightly bigger than Pallet Town, but has started getting bigger as of late as people moved out of the big cities. It is not common for trainers to stop at the gym- one or two a day come to challenge. It is located on the coast some miles south of Petalburg City. When trainers go through the Hoenn region, they generally stop at the same eight major cities like Rustboro and Lavaridge and collect the same eight badges. However, there are several other gyms in smaller towns that trainers could go to instead, and therefore miss out on the chance for a badge as well as useful experience. Most trainers pass right by Azure in their rush to get to Petalburg, so they miss the chance at earning a Tundra badge. Of course, Sophie is a tough gym leader, and earning that badge is still a challenge.

After his mom went out the door, Tristan sat and planned out what he should do with the day.

"_I guess I should get in some training. Who should it be today? I haven't had Sableye out in a while. Flygon would be good too. I can have it battle Macargo. I'll have Corsola go against Sableye."_

Tristan was allowed to start his journey later than most- at the age of 12. He started out with a Staryu that he had caught when he was 11. He wanted to be a trainer of ice and water types like his mother. Over the course of his journey though, he discovered he liked a different kind of pokemon. He became fascinated by pokemon that have two types. When his Staryu evolved into Starmie, it became a water/psychic type. When he saw how powerful it was, along with the strong resistances of the steel/electric Magneton that he had caught, he started catching and training only pokemon with two types. He found that dual-type pokemon have different strengths and weaknesses than single element pokemon, which he would use to his advantage time and again to win many battles.

Tristan spent the majority of the rest of the day training. He liked to alternate which pokemon he trained so that he kept his skills sharp. He had to be intimately familiar with the differing strengths and weaknesses of his pokemon since they are different than the single element counterparts. He also had many different pokemon, so that meant remembering many different move sets.

Three hours later, Tristan was getting hungry, and he saw that his pokemon were starting to get pretty tired. He decided it was time to end this training session.

"Good job today guys. We're done for now. Return." He called and returned his pokeballs to his belt.

When made his way back to his house, he found his mom, dad, and two brothers sitting around the table in the middle of an apparently serious discussion.

"What's up you guys?" Tristan asked.

"I've got to attend a conference tomorrow up in Ever Grande City with the League. It's supposed to last two days. I don't know what to do about the gym though. I don't want to close it for that whole time, but you're the only person in this family other than me that is a trainer. We were discussing whether or not we should have you fill in as a substitute gym leader." his mom explained.

"Wow, really? I can do that!" Tristan exclaimed.

"You think you can handle it? It is a lot of work you know. It is more than the battles- there is paperwork and stuff, too…" she said

"Sure, it's no problem. After all, I will be taking over this gym some day right?" he asked

"Well of course you will, but not until you are older. So then it's settled. For the next few days, consider yourself the substitute Azure Town gym leader!"

"Cool!"

Tristan grabbed a sandwich and went up to his room. He let out Starmie and told him the good news.

"I'm going to be a gym leader, Starmie! This is awesome! I can't wait to start. I get to battle new people, act all tough and cool, and then give out badges if they beat me. Which of course they won't, right buddy?

Huuuuuuh! agreed Starmie

**(A/N- Starmie's call is difficult to put into a word if you have seen the anime. That's my best shot at it.)**

"Yep. And you are going to be my main pokemon. I better watch out or people will compare me to that Misty girl out in Kanto. Remember getting her Cascade badge? It was easy! Not like us. We are going to make sure no one gets the Tundra badge under our watch!"

Tristan spent the rest of the day excitedly thinking about his chance to be a gym leader, if only for a couple days. It was going to be so awesome. He would get to whoop some young trainers thinking that they could actually beat him. He would be the defender of the Tundra badge. The only way to get the badge would be through his arsenal of pokemon. Who would he use? There were so many choices. He thought about it all through dinner, not listening to what his mom was saying. He spent the whole night assembling his perfect team that could withstand any challenger's type. He was putting more thought into this than when he competed at the Indigo Plateau! When he went to bed that night he was confident that he had an unbeatable lineup ready to go.

The next day, Tristan got up earlier than ever before- 8:00! He got dressed in his favorite clothes- black long sleeve shirt and a red t-shirt with black stripes down the side over it, jeans, and black sneakers. He also put on his old red and black training gloves. He then went downstairs to see his mom off and get the last minute instructions she had.

"All right Tristan, listen up. Jen is going to help you with the paper work since there are several League forms you have to fill out after each battle. The badges are over on the counter, and the experience pills are there too. You are familiar with the gym rules- no changing them! And remember, this is an ice gym so use ice types. I've left for you Glalie, Dewgong…."

"Wait WHAT? I have to use ice types only? But I am a dual-type trainer. That's not fair."

"I told you this last night at dinner! You never pay attention! If you had just followed in my footsteps and become an ice-type trainer this would not be a problem." she muttered. "No questions mister. Trainers come here expecting to battle ice types and that is exactly what is going to happen. I can shut the gym down instead if that is what you would prefer."

"No! I-I'll use ice types, mom. I promise."

"Good. Now have fun and try not to lose too many times! Bye-bye!"

"Mom! I'm a good trainer- no one can beat me! Bye."

With that his mom walked out the door and drove away to the airport to catch her plane. In the meantime, Tristan was stewing with unhappy thoughts.

_Great, now I'm stuck using one stupid type. What rotten luck. I might as well just give the badges away. "Try not to lose too many times!" For Mew's sake, I've only gone on how many journeys now? And she knows exactly how well I did too. I can't believe her- "if only you were an ice-type trainer…" Will she ever let up about that? Sorry to be the big disappointment mom. She can't go more than three days without complaining about it._

_Wait… she never said I couldn't use my dual- types, just it had to be ice types. In your face mom! Well, trainers, get ready for a lot more than just ice! Let's see, which ones can I use…_

Tristan had only gotten about an hour to think when…

intercom "Tristan? Your first challenger is here!"

_Oh boy…_


	2. First Battle as Sub

A huge thank you to srgeman for reviewing! I hope everyone else leaves a review too!  
--

**Chapter 2-**

A teen walked through the sliding doors of the Azure Town gym. That familiar feeling of excitement in his stomach began to surface. He walked up to the circular desk with a woman behind it.

"Welcome to the Azure Town gym. My name is Jen, how can I help you?"

"Hello, I would like to challenge the gym leader." he said.

"Okay. You'll be battling with three pokemon, so I suggest you get them ready. I'll page the gym leader." Jen replied.

(intercom) "Tristan? Your first challenger is here!"

--

_Oh boy, my first challenger. Why did it have to be so soon?_

"OK, Jen, tell them I'll be right there."

As he walked to the main part of the gym, Tristan worriedly began to think:

"_Oh, Mew, I am __**not**__ ready for this. Couldn't they have waited a couple of hours? Geez, this person must've gotten up at dawn to get here. My first match. OK, relax, it's probably some new trainer with a starter and like a Tailow or a Zigzagoon or something weak. Nothing to worry about. Oh shoot! I forgot my pokemon!" _

He quickly ran back to his room. He went over in his mind who he has that is part ice-type.

"_Ok, ice types are weak against fire, fighting, steel, and rock attacks and have a resistance only to other ice attacks. This is why one element pokemon suck. Anyway, I have Sealeo, Piloswine, Lapras, Sneasel, Cloyster, Delibird, and Dewgong, and mom's Dewgong and Glalie. Cloyster is part water so it'll take care of the fire and rock types, and can go in its shell to ward off fighting attacks and its picked up weakness to electricity. I'll take Lapras for the water too. Then I'll throw a fast one at them and bring Sneasel for its dark type. It picks up a weakness to Bug types, but also picks up strengths versus psychic, ghost, and dark types. This should be fun."_

Tristan grabbed his pokeballs and quickly ran back to the gym. He told Jen over the intercom that the challenger could enter. He was confident that his careful selections would provide a big surprise for this challenger.

The battle arena was really something to behold. It was covered in frosted mirrors to give the impressions that the battle was happening on a sheet of ice. In the middle of the floor was a small, but deep pool to give the ice pokemon a place to go during battle. The air in the gym was kept at around 45 degrees which was a good compromise between comfort and maximizing the potential of ice attacks. As an added bonus, it was usually an unpleasant feeling for challengers and served to distract them.

The doors opened and in stepped his opponent. He looked to be a little under Tristan's age with spiky brown hair and green eyes. He wore a black polo and what appeared to be purple pants.

"My name is Gary Oak from Pallet and I'm here to challenge the gym leader!"

"OK Gary. My name is Tristan and I am the gym leader of the Azure Town gym." _Haven't I heard the name Oak before…?_

"You're the gym leader? I heard the leader of this gym was named Sophie."

"Yes, that's my mom, but she is away at a conference and she will be away for three days. I am her substitute, and I can assure you that I am more than a handful for any trainer."

"Very well. Then I guess my battle is with you."

"Great! Just step into the box over there and we will get started.

At this time, Tristan's younger brother Adam came out. He acted as a judge for the battles along with Tristan's father and other brother.

"This will be a three on three pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Gary will be battling with the gym leader, Tristan, for a Tundra badge. The challenger is allowed to substitute their pokemon during battle, while the gym leader is not. The last trainer with a pokemon left standing will be the winner. Are the trainers ready?"

"Yes" they both answered

"Then BEGIN!"

_Here we go... _"Go Cloyster!" Tristan yelled.

"Go Arcanine!"

_Just as I thought, a fire type. Too bad Cloyster has no weakness to fire types._

"Arcanine use agility! Then do a flamethrower!"

"Cloyster, wait in your shell!"

Arcanine ran quickly up to Cloyster and let lose a torrent of flames. The flamethrower hit the shell and appeared to have no impact.

"Now Cloyster, spike cannon!"

Spikes came out of Cloyster's shell in all directions, hitting Arcanine.

"Arcanine, shake it off and do Take Down!"

ARC!

"Wait for Arcanine to get close, Cloyster."

Arcanine hurtled towards Cloyster at full force and was about to hit it when…

"Now Cloyster, Clamp onto Arcanine!

Cloyster went up into the air and clamped onto Arcanine's back. The fire dog stopped and began to buck wildly doing its best to try and shake Cloyster off but it would not budge. Gary tried to get his pokemon to calm down but it wouldn't listen.

"Now Cloyster, do another Spike Cannon!"

While still holding on to Arcanine, Cloyster let loose another barrage of spikes at close range. Arcanine howled in pain.

"Arcanine! Try a flame wheel!"

Arcanine did that and the heat caused Cloyster to have to let go.

"It's alright Cloyster. Let that Arcanine hear your Supersonic!"

Cloyster began to emit waves of high pitched sound which made Arcanine confused.

"Arcanine try to calm down and use a flamethrower on Cloyster."

But Arcanine instead fired the flamethrower at Adam who narrowly jumped out of the way.

"Cloyster, finish this off with a Water Pulse!"

The water crashed into the confused Arcanine and when it was over, the fiery dog lay in a heap in the middle of the battlefield.

"Arcanine is unable to battle. Cloyster is the winner!"

"Alright, good job Cloyster! You were awesome!"

"Arcanine return. You deserve a rest. You may have gotten lucky taking down my Arcanine, but try this. Go Nidoking!"

Gary managed to use a well timed Focus Energy and Double Kick to knock Cloyster out, though it did manage to get an Ice Beam off that weakened Nidoking. Tristan then sent out Lapras whose Confuse Ray and Hydro Pump knocked out Nidoking. Nidoking weakened Lapras some before it fainted with a Double Kick. Gary sent out his final pokemon, his trusty Umbreon. The gold-ringed dog took out Lapras using the speed of its quick attack and its dark attacks Assurance and Faint.

"One more for each of us right Tristan? My Umbreon is fast isn't it?"

"Yes, very. I hope that allows you to enjoy my last pokemon even more. Go Sneasel!"

"A Sneasel? Hmm… indeed they are part ice. I did not see that coming." _Shoot! My dark attacks are going to be useless. Well, so are his. _"OK Umbreon, Quick Attack!

"Sneasel, dodge and use your Screech."

Sneasel dodged the oncoming bullet that was Umbreon and emitted an ear splitting screech. Umbreon ground to a halt trying to cover its ears.

"Good, now use Icy Wind!"

The Icy Wind attack hit Umbreon as it started to get up.

_Icy Wind slows down opponents so his speed advantage is now gone. _

"Umbreon shake it off and use Shadow Ball!"

The black blob hit Sneasel knocking it down.

"Sneasel, are you okay?" It nodded its head. "Alright then, use your speed and give Umbreon your Slash attack."

"Umbreon dodge it!"

But the effects of the Icy Wind allowed Sneasel to easily catch Umbreon and deliver a punishing slash that hurt Umbreon. Umbreon flew across the field and was slow getting up.

"Sneasel, finish it off with Metal Claw!"

The attack hit Umbreon full force as Gary watched in astonishment. Umbreon lay on the ground fainted.

"Umbreon is unable to battle. Sneasel is the winner. The match goes to the gym leader."

_Yes! I won! Take that mom! "_Good battle Sneasel, you were excellent. Return."

"Umbreon, return. You did your best buddy." _Dang it! I can't believe I lost to that guy._ _I've never seen Umbreon get taken down that easy. His Sneasel is good._

"Gary, that was an exciting match! As per the gym rules, you must wait at least two full days before rechallenging the gym to allow you and your pokemon time to heal and regroup. And my mom might be back by then, so it'll be easier, but don't tell her I said that." he added, looking around as if she could hear him.

"Then I will be back in two days. By the way, nice pokemon."

And with that Gary went out the doors to the Pokemon Center. Tristan meanwhile walked outside and let out Sneasel, Lapras, and Cloyster to talk the battle over with them and to congratulate them on a great victory. He returned them to their pokeballs and headed back inside where Jen worked with him on the paperwork that he had to do. It took them almost an hour to get through it.

Afterwards, Tristan decided to go to the Pokemon Center in town to give his pokemon a recharge in case he needed them for another battle. He also decided he would get some lunch while he was out too, as that battle took a lot out of him. And with that Tristan walked out the door towards the Azure Town Pokemon Center.

**A/N- Gary is way too young to dedicate himself to a life of research! So, he went to Hoenn like Ash did for this story. Remember to review!**


	3. Getting to Know You

A big thanks to srgeman and pikachuhunter1 for reviewing! Everyone follow their lead!

--

**Chapter 3-**

As Tristan walked along the road to the Pokemon Center, he was deep in thought about the events of that morning:

"_That was an awesome battle with that Gary kid. I got really lucky that he had an Umbreon to go up against Sneasel instead of a fighting or bug type. If he rechallenges me, I definitely need a different lineup. Of course, I would do that anyway because it's boring using the same pokemon over and over. I hope that I turn out to be a really tough gym leader once I take over from mom and turn the gym into a dual-type gym. I just hope Mom doesn't flip out over it. I don't think she realizes how much it hurts me when she talks about her disappointment in me not being an ice trainer. I'm just going to have to prove to her that dual-types are nothing to be disappointed in! I just don't know how."_

With those thoughts on his mind, Tristan walked into the center with a slight frown on his face. As he walked up to Nurse Joy to give her his pokeballs, she noticed his expression.

"Tristan, how are you doing today? You look a bit down."

"It's nothing Nurse Joy. Don't worry about it- I'm just stressed out with the gym. Can you give my pokemon a recharge?"

"Not a problem. I'll let you know when they are ready."

"Thank you Nurse Joy."

Tristan went to a sofa in the waiting room and sat down. He picked up a copy of _Pokemon Trainer Weekly _and was about to read it when he saw Gary emerge from the hallway where the trainer's quarters were. He watched as Gary walked up to the counter where Nurse Joy handed him back his pokeballs. As Gary was getting ready to walk out the door, Tristan walked over to him.

"Hey Gary. How are your pokemon?" Tristan asked.

"They're fine. I guess you're here to get your pokemon healed as well?" Gary replied.

"Yeah. I've gotta have them healthy in case I want to use some of them if another challenger comes. By the way, I saw you come down the hallway- are you staying here?"

"Of course. Do you think I would stay outside when I could have a bed?"

"Heh-heh. You're right. Stupid question. So where are you from again? I forget what you said at the gym."

"I'm from Pallet Town. It's in the Kanto region."

"Oh yes, I'm familiar with that town. That's where the ferry took me when I started my journey through the Indigo League."

"You competed at the Indigo League? When?"

"Hmm… I guess it has been about four years now. I suppose you've competed in it too?"

"Yeah, two years ago. How well did you do?"

"I finished in the top 8. Not too bad considering it was my first tournament. How did you do?"

"I got knocked out in the fourth round. But wait, you said that was your first tournament. What, you couldn't qualify for the Hoenn League?"

"Actually, I've never journeyed through Hoenn. I started on my journey when I was 12 which is later than other kids as you know. When I was thinking about what to do when I started, I decided I wanted to get away from the Hoenn region altogether since it was familiar and I wanted to see far away places. So I went across the ocean to Kanto first, then took a year off and went to Johto."

"Well, I can relate to the late start since I got going at 11- I held back to compete against a rival of mine. Did you compete in the Silver Conference?"

_sigh_ "Yes, I did. I got to the finals. But I lost to this girl that's also from Hoenn named Gabrielle. I consider her my arch-nemesis now. I take it you also competed in the Silver Conference?"

"Yes, but I only got to the top 32. Wow, you're quite an accomplished trainer. What pokemon do you have?

The two sat and wound up talking for the next few hours about the various pokemon they had captured and battled with on their journeys and reminisced about people they had met and battled. Before the two of them knew it, the sun was beginning to set.

"Wow, I can't believe it's already sunset. I guess no more challengers came to the gym. I better get back there to close up for the night. It's been really cool talking to you Gary." Tristan said.

"Yeah, me too. Maybe I'll stop by the gym tomorrow and we can do some training." Gary said.

"Sure, feel free to come by anytime. But no official battle until the day after tomorrow remember!"

"I know, I know. See ya Tristan."

"See ya Gary."

And so Tristan went out the door and headed back to the gym. Meanwhile, Gary had some stuff on his mind.

"_That guy is a really interesting person. He has a ton of those dual-type pokemon and they must be very strong. Not to mention his accomplishments in Kanto and Johto, and the fact that he is going to be a gym leader some day. I can probably learn a lot from him. Maybe when I become a researcher, I can investigate if any of the ancient pokemon were dual-types, or if that evolved later. Anyway, time to do some training before bed!"_

At the same time, Tristan was thinking about his conversation with Gary.

"_What an interesting kid. His grandfather is __the__ Professor Oak. That's where I had heard that name from. He has caught a lot of pokemon and is pretty strong too. And it sounds like it was a combination of just bad luck and some poor judgment that kept him from going a lot further in his League competitions. He is so lucky that he gets to keep travelling around. I'm sure he'll be a handful in the Ever Grande Conference."_

_--_

The next day, Gary decided to head over to the gym after lunch. When he got there, Tristan was battling another challenger, a young trainer that looked like he had just gotten started on his first journey. Gary watched in slight amusement as Tristan pummeled the kid's pokemon into submission. He was also interested in the new pokemon Tristan was using. Gary pulled out his pokedex and read the information about the pokemon- it was a Sealeo. As Gary looked back up, he saw said Sealeo deliver a knock-out blow courtesy of an Aurora Beam on the kids Zigzagoon. The kid was defeated. Tristan walked up to him smiling and talked over what the kid could do differently next time in battle and informed him of the two day wait policy. After the kid had walked away, Gary watched as Tristan let out his pokemon and began talking the battle over with them. As he was wrapping up, Gary walked over to him.

"Well that was a lot easier than you had it yesterday it appears."

"Yeah. That kid was more of what I was expecting- starter pokemon plus some low level common pokemon. You surprised me when you started pulling out those high level pokemon that aren't usually found around here. Speaking of which, how are you and your pokemon doing today?"

"Good. By the way, your Sealeo looks cool. I've never seen one up close before."

"I know- they aren't found in Kanto or Johto. You can pet her if you want."

Gary bent down to pet the seal pokemon. "So, can you show me some more of your Hoenn pokemon?"

"Sure. Let's head around back."

As they walked around back, Tristan was talking about all the pokemon he could show Gary.

"There are a surprising number of pokemon that are found here and not in the other regions. I was shocked on my journey over in Kanto and Johto when I didn't see any Wingull or Zigzagoon or Tailow since they are so common here. Do you want to battle some of my pokemon?"

"Sure, it will give me more experience as I head around the region."

"You've got that right. I really want to battle you with Sealeo because I know it is close to evolving into a Walrein, but since I'm using her in gym battles I have to give her those anti-experience pills."

"Yeah, I've heard of those. They don't allow pokemon to gain any experience from a battle right?"

"Yep. Some stupid league rule. But gym leaders battle so much, I guess they would all wind up with level 100 pokemon eventually. Then no one would get any badges. I guess the rule isn't stupid when you're on the other side, but on this side it's a major downer."

"Well I'd like to battle Sealeo after the pills effects run out. Now about your other pokemon…?"

"Right. Before I begin, let me just say that I don't have every technical dual-type. I don't count pokemon that are grass/poison, bug/poison, rock/ground, normal/flying, or any others whose different types are really similar like that. I just don't think they constitute a truly dual-type pokemon. Now then, I have every dual type from Kanto and Johto- I made sure to get them all while I was there. But I don't have all of the Hoenn one's yet. I hope to complete my collection of them someday." he said looking out in the distance. "Anyway, first off, there is my water pokemon over here in the pool. There is Sharpedo, Swampert, Crawdaunt, Whiscash, Delibird, Pelliper, and it looks like Ludicolo is here too. And the others are one's you already know like Corsola and Mantine and Kingdra."

After Gary got a chance to examine every one of the pokemon, Tristan took him over to the flying pokemon area where he saw Salamence and Flygon. Then he took him over to the forest where they saw Shiftry, Cacturne, and Breloom. And after walking around some more they managed to find Camerupt, Medicham, Aggron, Sableye, and Blaziken. Gary enjoyed every minute of it. He especially liked seeing those dragon types.

"I love being able to see new pokemon. It's like a fresh surprise every time. You never know what it really looks like, acts like, or sounds like until you see a pokemon in person. I really wish I could see all of these pokemon in battle." Gary exclaimed.

"Well I'm sure you'll run into people who have them over the course of your travels. These aren't the only ones in the region. Heck, you might even catch some of them yourself. Shroomish and Seedot are everywhere. Lotad and Corphish are pretty common around water. Of course you'll have to work a long time to get all of the evolved forms that I have, but I know you are a good enough trainer to do it."

"Thanks. So I think I am ready to battle. I think I would like to start with that Medicham. It looks like a fighting type and I am good against those."

"Alright then. Medicham! We have a challenge. Ready for a little battle_?" Hoo-boy. Wait until he gets a load of the psychic attacks that Medicham also has._

After Umbreon got first hand experience with those psychic attacks, Gary was a little discouraged, but wanted to battle one more time.

"Okay then. I'll take on that Flygon- I know it is part dragon and my guess is that the other part is bug type.

Gary's Arcanine then paid the price for that misjudgment as Flygon unleashed powerful dragon and ground attacks on the unsuspecting dog.

"So you up for one more or have you had enough for today?"

Just then Tristan's phone rang. He answered and talked for a moment to the other person and hung up.

"That was Jen. I've got another challenger. I'd advise you to go back to the pokemon center and have a good long read on your pokedex about all the pokemon you saw here. Remember, looks can be deceiving, especially when you are dealing with a dual-type. Also get well rested because tomorrow is our rematch."

"Yeah, I guess I was just overconfident in myself and did not even consult the pokedex. I guess I thought it would make me too much like Ash, my rival, always whipping that thing out for every single pokemon he sees. Anyway, see you tomorrow."

And with that Gary headed back to the pokemon center, eager to research as much as he could about all of Tristan's Hoenn region pokemon, as well as to devise a strategy for his gym rematch. Meanwhile, Tristan headed inside, and upon seeing another young beginner trainer with a little Treecko by his side, a big smile formed on his face…

"My name is Tristan and I am the gym leader of the Azure Town gym…"

**Well, do you guys like it? Let me know in you reviews! They are like delicious candy to me!**


	4. Back to the Real World

**Thank you srgeman and cfraser for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 4-**

The next day dawned bright and beautiful

At the Hoenn Region Pokemon League headquarters, Sophie was just getting down to the lounge where the rest of the gym leaders were. As soon as she got down there…

"Sophie!"

"Caroline!"

The two long time friends hugged and immediately got to talking.

"What are you doing here Caroline?"

"Oh Norman and I were out shopping and so I just tagged along to this little thing. So, how are the boys?"

"Oh it's the same old, same old. Tristan has been hanging around the house training all the time. He is still on that whole dual type pokemon high. And Adam and Evan have been helping out Calvin with his boats as well as being judges for my battles. How's May and Max?"

"Well, guess what? May is starting her journey!"

"Get out!"

"I know! I'm very excited for her. She says she is going around to all of the gyms. I hope she is able to make it to you!"

"Well it probably won't be for a while since she'll probably want to just start right up with Roxanne. Maybe towards the end of her trip or when she stops in to battle your husband!"

"Oh I am not looking forward to that at all. It is going to be so weird! Anyway, guess what happened to me the other day…"

The two went on like that for quite some time before Winona came in and called all of the gym leaders into the conference room. Once they got in there she called everyone to order.

"Okay everyone, lets make this quick so we can get back to our gyms. The reason we are having this meeting is to warn you all about the increasing criminal activity relating to two organizations that are calling themselves Team Aqua and Team Magma. They have so far just been stealing various artifacts from around the region, but we received a report that they could be behind some kidnappings of various people in pokemon academia."

"What is their purpose?" asked Roxanne.

"We have been unable to find that out. It seems though that Team Aqua does something relating to water and have been sighted with Crawdaunt. Team Magma is less clear because they have been sighted with Mightyena, which does not really relate to the fire connotation of their name."

"So what can we do?" asked Norman.

"Well, we should start with vigilance. If you see suspicious activity happening around your gym or in your town, call the league so they can send in some investigators. Also make sure that all your security measures for your gym are up to date. It seems like they are less inclined to stealing pokemon than they are information, but it does not hurt to be safe. I've got a preventative safety presentation on video that we are going to watch now. Then we are all going to meet up again after lunch to go over what we can do to try and stop these guys…"

--

The day dawned bright and beautiful. Gary looked outside with a grin on his face.

"_This is perfect weather for winning badges. Tristan can't surprise me now with his dual-type advantage. I'll be ready this time around. NO one gets Gary Oak twice in battle."_

Meanwhile, Tristan was having similar thoughts as he gazed outside, quite a few hours _after _the day had dawned of course.

"_Gary is coming back today. I gave him a lot of information about my pokemon as well as pokemon from Hoenn. But it's one thing to have knowledge about pokemon and another to actually battle with them. I know I can beat him again."_

After eating some breakfast, Gary headed over to the gym. He told Jen that he was here for his rematch and waited for Tristan to answer his challenge. Unfortunately, someone had already beaten Gary to the gym that morning. He decided to go watch what was going on.

As he entered, he heard one of Tristan's brothers shout "Delibird is unable to battle, Onix wins. The challenger has three Pokémon to the gym leader's one."

Gary couldn't believe it. He saw a teenager about Tristan's age standing there looking smug, while Tristan looked pretty angry. He watched as Tristan sent out his last Pokémon, his Lapras. Gary knew that Tristan was in trouble. Sure enough, Lapras was down after about two minutes with the Onix using Dig to miss the water attacks and using a relentless barrage of Rock Throw and what appeared to be a grass type Hidden Power.

"Lapras is unable to battle. The winner is Justin!"

Justin was smiling as he returned his Onix to its pokeball and started to walk towards Tristan. Tristan just looked stunned as he recalled his Lapras. Gary listened closely as they talked.

"Wow dude, that was a pitiful showing for a gym leader. Hope your mommy comes back soon to clean up your mess." Justin said.

"Thank you for that. Here is your Tundra badge. Have a nice day."

Tristan gave him the badge and then turned and walked out of the gym towards the house. Justin walked toward the lobby. Gary went down to the lobby as Justin was walking out.

"Are you here to challenge the gym leader?" Justin asked.

"Yes I am." Gary replied.

"He's a piece of cake. I didn't lose a single battle. Have fun." Justin said as he walked out the door.

_Wow, what a jerk. Was that what I used to be like?_ Gary wondered.

Tristan sat down in his room and just stared at the wall.

"_I can't believe I lost. Who am I to think that I deserve to be a gym leader. That guy was right. That was a pitiful battle. My pokemon deserve so much better than that. And I saw Gary in the stands. He probably thinks I'm a loser too." _

Tristan called out the pokemon he used and apologized to each of them. They hated to see him so down and tried to cheer Tristan up. He was feeling slightly better when he heard a knock on the door. When he opened it, he saw Gary.

"Hey. How're you doing?" Gary asked.

"I can't believe I lost. I always saw myself going undefeated as a gym leader."

"You know that never happens. Gym leaders lose all the time."

"I know. It's so much easier to choose a type that you know is going to be strong against a gym leader's specialty, but it's so hard then be in the gym leader's position and have no idea what's going to be thrown at you. I know that's the downfall of dual types. Sometimes you get lucky and have a good matchup, other times you have your ass handed to you. I guess that's why there are no dual-type gyms. I had nothing for that Onix."

"True, there are no dual-type gyms. But you are a good trainer. Maybe there is a first for that type of gym. Maybe you are just the person to be able to pull it off. All I know is that instead of sitting here moping, you need to get up and get ready. Because I'm here to challenge the Azure Town gym leader, not some cry-baby."

Tristan smiled and stood up. "I accept your challenge."

--

Gary went back to the lobby to wait as Tristan got a new team together. Jen turned to him after 10 minutes and told him he could go in. Tristan stood waiting for Gary inside the arena. He had carefully selected his new team for this battle. He had always thought it stupid that most gym leaders used the same pokemon over and over again. It was so… boring. Tristan liked mixing things up and this was the perfect chance to do it.

"Alright Gary, you know the drill. Don't expect me to take it easy on you just because we're friends."

"I was thinking the same thing Tristan. The Tundra badge is mine today!"

Tristan's brother Evan stepped up to judge the match.

"This will be a three on three pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Gary will be battling with the gym leader, Tristan, for a Tundra badge. The challenger is allowed to substitute their pokemon during battle, while the gym leader is not. The last trainer with a pokemon left standing will be the winner. Are the trainers ready?"

"Yes." They replied.

"Then battle on!"

"Go Dewgong- and hop into the water!"

"Go Scizor!"

Tristan's Dewgong and Gary's Scizor were ready for a battle. However, Scizor was unable to get to Dewgong before it went underwater.

"Alright Dewgong, get things started off good with a big Icy Wind!" The effects of the Icy Wind were immediately apparent as Scizor slowed down dramatically.

"_Dang it, there goes all of my speed attacks with Scizor. Oh well."_

"Scizor, now that it's out, hit it with a Slash attack!"

"Dodge that!" The attack grazed Dewgong's back but still did damage.

"Come back with an Ice Beam!" The attack missed Scizor by inches.

"Scizor, use Fury Cutter!"

"Dewgong- don't move, let Scizor come close."

Scizor flew in at Dewgong as fast as it could given the Icy Wind effects. Just as it was about to hit…

"Aurora Beam now Dewgong!" The beam hit Scizor square on and knocked the bug to the ground, but overall did not deal much damage.

"Shake it off Scizor! Now do a Metal Claw! The attack connected with Dewgong knocking it backwards.

"Dewgong, counter it with a Water Pulse!"

Attack after attack landed as neither side backed down. Both pokemon were extremely tired.

"Scizor, finish it off with a Slash attack!"

"No! Dewgong, quick do a Water Pulse!"

The Water Pulse collided with Scizor causing it to not hit Dewgong head on but still get its tail. But the bug pokemon hit the ground and skidded to a halt and did not get back up.

"Scizor is unable to battle."

"Good job Scizor, you did your best. Return. Go Alakazam!"

Alakazam made quick work of Dewgong. But then trouble struck for Gary when Tristan sent out Sneasel again. The dark type had a huge strength against psychic types. And unfortunately for Gary, Tristan had it use Mean Look right off the bat so that Gary was stuck with Alakazam. It did not take long for Alakazam to be knocked out. Gary was down to his last pokemon.

"Well, I hope this works. Go Magmar!"

Magmar played on Sneasel's weakness to fire with a barrage of flamethrower's and fire punches that knocked the pokemon out while only taking a single Ice Beam attack that did minimal damage.

"Well, it comes down to our last pokemon yet again. Go Piloswine!"

_Yes! Piloswine is way weak against fire types. But wait, it's also a ground type. This could be bad…" _Gary thought inwardly.

"Magmar, hit it quick with a flamethrower!"

"Counter it with a Blizzard attack Piloswine! Make it snow like a nor'easter!"

The flamethrower died out in the onslaught of snow and ice. It started to take a toll on Magmar as the pokemon started to freeze.

"Come on Magmar. Find Piloswine and give it a Fire Blast!"

But when the blizzard cleared Piloswine was not where Magmar and Gary thought it would be. It had managed to make its way right in front of Gary!

"Now Piloswine, Earthquake!"

The gym trembled under the mighty earthquake the big pokemon unleashed. Unfortunate for Magmar, since it is weak to ground attacks. The fire type collapsed to the ground.

"Magmar get up, I know you can do this!" Gary's pokemon wobbled onto its feet. "Now give it that flamethrower of yours!"

Piloswine had no chance to dodge it and got hit full on. It took considerable damage.

"Piloswine, go in for the knock out with a Take Down!"

"Counter it with a Fire Punch, Magmar!

Both pokemon connected with their attacks and caused an explosion at the impact. When the smoke cleared, both pokemon were down.

"Magmar and Piloswine are unable to battle. The match is a draw!"

"Alright Piloswine, have a rest."

"Fine job out there Magmar. You did all you could."

"Gary, I don't know what to say. That was another awesome battle! Here, the Tundra badge is yours since you were able to knock out all of my pokemon."

"No Tristan, I want to win it outright. Keep the badge. I…I've got to go."

And with that Gary stormed out the door leaving Tristan feeling bad that Gary appeared to be mad at him.

--

Gary walked around the town for a while with a frown on his face thinking about the battle. He had never had this much trouble beating a person, even Ash! He was very angry with himself for failing like that. He needed to talk to someone.

Gary went to the Pokemon Center and gave Nurse Joy his pokemon, then went to the phone and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello, this is the Oak Laboratory, Tracey here."

"Hey Trace. Can you put Grampa on?"

"Oh, hi Gary! Sure, hang on for a sec."

"Gary my boy, how are things in Hoenn?"

"Terrible. I'm in Azure Town trying to win a Tundra badge, and I've been unable to beat the gym leader in a battle And he's just a substitute gym leader"

"Well, that sounds like quite some gym leader. Do you think you could beat the regular gym leader?"

"Without a doubt."

"What do you think the problem is?"

"I don't know. He specializes in dual types and they have so many different strengths and weaknesses from single types that I can't seem to get a hold on the battle. And he's a very capable trainer- he competed at the Indigo and Silver conferences and did really good in both."

"Hmmm. That is interesting. It sounds like you could really learn a lot from him. Remember Gary, it is not just about type difference in battle. Look at how many times Ash has shown us that. There is so much strategy that goes into a battle. It is like a game of chess. From what it sounds like, this gym leader has been a couple of moves ahead of you each time. You need to fix your strategy to be able to get back to being even with him."

"I'm just really disappointed in myself."

"Don't think like that! I know it is hard to lose. But you should not get down. You must allow a loss or failure to push you harder to improve so that it does not happen again! As a professor I do that all the time. Each failure shows me what not to do again, and ultimately pushes me to success. As a future researcher, you should get to know that philosophy well!"

"I suppose you're right! Thanks for the talk Grampa!"

"Don't mention it. Oh by the way, Ash is in Hoenn now. You should know that he decided to leave all of his pokemon behind except for Pikachu. Wanted to get off to a fresh start!"

"Why would he do that?"

"I might have told him that you did the same thing so that I could get him to leave his pokemon here so I could study them more." he said with a sheepish look.

Gary gave him a look of disbelief. "That's, kind of shady of you Gramps. But I do like that idea. I'm going to send you back all of my pokemon except for Umbreon. A fresh start will get me out of this funk and allow me to catch lots of new Hoenn pokemon."

"That's the spirit my boy! Send them over."

Gary retrieved his other five pokeballs and sent them back to Prof. Oak. After making sure they got there safely, he said good bye to his grandfather and hung up.

He walked around for another hour, thinking about what his grandfather had said. After a while, he realized what he needed to do.

_I need to go back and talk to Tristan._

_--_

**So, what do you all think? Review and tell me!**


	5. Big Decisions

**Thanks srgeman for reviewing!**

--

**Chapter 5-**

Tristan had just finished the paperwork about his battle with Gary

Tristan had just finished the paperwork about his battle with Gary. Jen could tell Tristan was bothered by something but didn't push the issue. Tristan went to the backyard where he normally trains and let out Piloswine, Dewgong, and Sneasel and talked the battle over with them. After the debriefing, he went inside to eat. Just as he was about to sit down, someone knocked on the door. Tristan answered it and found Gary standing there.

"Oh, it's you! Care to talk now?"

"Tristan, I want to apologize for my actions back there. I don't often lose and my temper got the best of me. I needed some time to think and cool down before I really got bad. You think you could forgive me?"

"Yeah, I understand. I get really mad when I lose. I forgive you. But it wasn't a loss you know, it was a draw. Want something for lunch?"

"Sure! And I consider a draw to be a loss."

The two ate lunch and talked about their pokemon and how to best use them in battle. The gym battle didn't even come up. Just as they were finishing up, the front door opened again. This was shortly followed by a loud voice shouting…

"I'M HOME! TRISTAN, EVAN, ADAM, HONEY! SOMEONE GET MY STUFF!"

"Oh boy. Mom's home."

She walked into the kitchen and found Gary and Tristan cleaning up from their lunch.

"Tristan! How are you sweetie? How was being gym leader? Who is your friend here? Where is your father and brothers?"

"Calm down, what is this the Pokemon Trainer Interview Hour? First off, how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me sweetie, I'm doing great, and I only gave away one badge as gym leader. Dad and the others are out back. By the way, this is Gary Oak from Pallet Town."

"Hello there Mrs. Chillar. It's nice to finally meet you. Your son has defeated me twice in battle, which has never happened to me before. He is a skilled trainer."

"Is that so? Did he use ice types like I asked him to?"

"Yes I did mom. And you'll be pleased to know I used my own pokemon exclusively."

"That's great swee- I mean Tristan!"

Tristan proceeded to tell his mom about the battles he fought, with some help with the details from Gary. She then told the two about the conference. It was mainly about ways to deal with Team Magma and Team Aqua. The conference ended early since they got through everything quicker than anticipated. After listening to her about the conference, Gary and Tristan went outside to talk more.

"Your mom seems really nice. I wish my parents were more hands on. You know they are out touring Europe? I haven't seen them in years."

"Wow man, that sucks. Yeah, mom's alright. And she's a lot easier to beat than me since she uses pretty much pure ice types like Glalie or ice/water types which are pretty common like her Dewgong and Walrein. You can challenge her in two days and probably win with just your Scizor and Magmar."

"Yeah… Tristan, I wanted to talk to you about the gym battle. I know it was close against Dewgong, and it was tough luck with Sneasel and the Mean Look, but your Piloswine. I still can't get over that I didn't beat it."

"Gary, what were you thinking when you saw me send out Piloswine?"

"I knew that it was weak against fire types, but also realized Magmar would be weak to it's ground attacks."

"Exactly. How many trainers do you think I've gone against that counted on beating Pilowsine due to its weakness to fire? I can tell you- a ton. I've seen a bunch of different strategies and scenarios that involve Piloswine vs. random fire type. And I've learned from each, and made sure the same thing did not happen again. Don't be upset, its just an experience edge I have on you. I'm sure you're not going to attack my Piloswine in the same way, so it works both ways. I guarantee that if we used the same three pokemon again, you would probably win."

The two reached the water and sat there for a while just chatting and watching the water pokemon playing with each other. They were eventually joined by some of the other pokemon like Blaziken and Cacturne. Tristan had closed his eyes, enjoying the sun. Meanwhile, Gary was deep in thought….

--

After a little bit, a rogue water gun from Swampert hit Tristan, rousing him up rather violently.

"YIKES, COLD! Alright, who hit me? Who's the wise guy, huh?"

All of the pokemon immediately pointed to Swampert, who was looking at the sky innocently.

"So, it was you, Swampert." Tristan said with a grim voice. "Well then, get ready for a SPLASH ATTACK!"

Tristan jumped in front of Swampert splashing a bunch of water onto him and some of the other pokemon. Eventually a huge water fight broke out with all of the pokemon and Tristan laughing and splashing each other. Gary and the other dry pokemon couldn't help but laugh too. After a few minutes Tristan came back onto land, soaked completely.

"Those hooligans." he said grinning. "Always getting me wet."

"Well it looked to me like you had a pretty good time getting wet."

"Indeed. It looks to me though that you are pretty dry. Perhaps another splash attack is in order?"

"NO! Actually I have something to ask you."

Tristan was slightly taken aback. "What is it?"

"_All right, here goes…"_

sigh "You are a really skilled trainer. I've failed to beat you twice now. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this. I was wondering if you would be interested in travelling around Hoenn with me so I could learn from you and get good enough to be able to beat you. You told me you wished you could travel, and you haven't competed in the Ever Grande Conference yet, so it could be a great chance for you and me both. You could also complete your collection of dual types. And now that your mom is back, you technically aren't a gym leader anymore, so what else are you going to be doing?"

Tristan was shocked. He didn't see this coming in the least.

"Gary, wow. I don't know what to say. I'm going to have to think about this and talk to my parents."

"That's fine. Just let me know by tomorrow. I won't be staying to challenge the gym again. I found out that my rival Ash is in Hoenn now and I can't let him get ahead of me."

"Okay. I'll have my answer for you by tonight then. See you later Gary."

"See you Tristan."

--

Tristan was laying on his bed, deep in thought. Starmie was there, and could sense that his trainer was troubled.

"_Wow, travelling around Hoenn with Gary. I don't know. I've wanted to travel again, and I would really like to beat my home conference. And it would be a great way to complete my collection of the Hoenn dual-types. I can't believe he has that much respect for me as a trainer. No one has ever said that many nice things about me! He's right that I won't be gym leader anymore. What would I do all day? It seems like I should go, but I don't know. I really don't even know Gary that well to be travelling with him. I've never even travelled with someone else before. How will he act out on the trail? And I don't know if mom will let me go out on another journey or force me to stay here at the gym."_

"Starmie, what would you think about going on another journey- you up for it?"

Starmie nodded as best it could, given it's shaped like a star.

"Hmm. All right then, I'm in. Now I just have to convince mom and dad. Should be easy."

At dinner that night, the family was talking about what had happened over the last couple of days when Tristan loudly cleared his throat. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Tristan? What is it?" Sophie asked.

"Well mom, I've been thinking. Now that I'm not gym leader anymore, I really don't have anything to be doing. And I love battling so much, but I won't get that much of an opportunity anymore. I've been here for a while, doing next to nothing. I've kind of wanted to do another journey."

"Okay, but why are you bringing this up now?"

"Well, Gary asked me this morning if I would travel around Hoenn with him. I was going to take him up on that offer."

"But we don't even know this Gary- what if he's a bad kid or something?"

"Mom, his grandfather is Professor Oak, you know, the world famous Pokemon Professor? Plus he has battled in the same conferences as I have, so he is experienced."

"Well, I do like that Professor Oak…" she said somewhat dreamily.

"What is this now?" Tristan's dad spluttered.

"Nothing dear!" she replied waving her hands back and forth. "Well, you're sixteen now, so I guess the decision is really up to you. If you truly want to do this, then go for it. You know how hard the Hoenn region is though. And none of the gym leaders are going to take it easy on you just because it's you."

"I know that mom. I want a good challenge."

"I'm going to miss having you around the house you know…"

"Save the guilt trip mom. It ain't going to work. I'm going to call Gary and let him know the decision."

Tristan went up to his room and dialed the Pokemon Center, and asked Nurse Joy to transfer his call to Gary. After a few seconds, Gary picked up.

"Tristan? What's the word?"

"I've decided. I put a lot of thought into this decision, and I know I have made the right call."

"_Dang it, he's not coming. I'm such an idiot for even asking..."_

"I've decided to go with you around Hoenn."

"_Wait, what?"_

"That's great Tristan! I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing just how strong you really are out on the trail. I'll be by the gym at 8, be ready to go, because I'm not waiting."

"Okay Gary. See you tomorrow."

--

**Go ahead and press the review button- I know you all want to.**


	6. Ready, Set, Go!

**Thanks for reviewing srgeman!**

--

**Chapter 6-**

Tristan had spent the whole night finding all of his old travelling items- sleeping bag, map, backpack, cooking stuff- all the necessities to survive away from civilization

Tristan had spent the whole night finding all of his old travelling items- sleeping bag, tarp, backpack, cooking stuff- all the necessities to survive away from civilization, as well as his pokedex, pokenav, and some spare pokeballs. He then had to come to a tough decision. Who amongst all of his pokemon would be accompanying him on the trip? He decided he would be taking four with him, to leave room in his party for catching some new pokemon. He knew there were a total of 12 Hoenn dual types that he still needed to catch to complete his collection. He thought about it long and hard. In the end, it was going to be his trusty pal Starmie, a water/psychic type, Charizard, a fire/flying type, Flygon, a ground/dragon type, and Sableye, a dark/ghost type accompanying him to start out with. These four would be able to cover a wide range of strengths and weaknesses.

When morning arrived, Tristan was ready to go. He had on a new outfit- a black t-shirt with a red sleeveless hoodie over it, khaki cargo shorts, and black shoes. Naturally he was wearing his old trainer's gloves too. His family was waiting for him downstairs to say goodbye.

"Well, good luck son. Make me proud out there."

"I will dad."

"You're out having fun and we're stuck in the gym. Lucky."

"Sorry bro. You guys will survive somehow."

"Are you sure you have everything that you are going to need?"

"Yes mom."

"Did you pack enough clothes?"

"Yes."

"Did you see the camping stuff I got out for you?"

"Yes and it would have added an extra thirty pounds to my pack. It's staying here."

"Do you have potions and antidotes and what not?"

"We'll be stopping by the Pokemart in Petalburg to get that stuff. We should be there by tonight."

"You will be calling me at every Pokemon Center you get to, understand?"

"I'll try to remember."

"I want you to take this as a good luck charm," she said as she handed him a thin leather cord and a charm that could go on it. The charm was a circle with four lines radiating from the bottom. It looked like it was made of ice.

"What is it?"

"It's Kyogre's symbol, that's your zodiac sign- you know how I like that sort of thing. He was a legendary sea pokemon. I found this charm on the beach a little after you were born, and was saving it for a good time to give to you. People with that zodiac sign are naturally lucky, but this will give you all of the extra good luck you need to win the Hoenn League."

"Thanks mom. That was, thoughtful of you." he said as he slipped the charm on the cord and tied it around his neck. She pulled him into a big hug and kissed him on the forehead.

"Have fun out there sweetie. Stay safe, catch a lot of pokemon, eat right, drink plenty of water, and good luck."

"Thanks mom. Bye everyone!"

With that Tristan walked out the door towards the Pokemon Center to meet up with Gary.

Upon reaching the Pokemon Center, Tristan saw Gary sitting on a bench outside with his Umbreon and his pack.

"Hey Gary, what's up with Umbreon being out?"

"Oh, I always keep her out. She likes being able to walk along with me. By the way, I figured I should tell you- I sent all of my other pokemon back to my grandfather. I figure it would be nice to get a fresh start here in Hoenn."

"Sounds like an interesting decision. So, shall we get going? It's a bit of a hike to Petalburg."

"Let's go!"

So they set off to Petalburg City. They spent the day getting to know each other better, talking about their favorite movies, TV shows, and bands. Both were big fans of the comedian Phil Werrel and were quoting lines from his movies, cracking each other up. They also debated who were the hottest trainers and gym leaders (Gary was fond of Erika, while Tristan thought that Sabrina looked extremely hot in her tight outfit, but both agreed that Lorelei was just ridiculously proportioned, in a good way).

During the day, they also worked out how camping stuff was going to work out. They would alternate weeks of who did the cooking and who did the firewood getting/ cleaning. They would split the costs of supplies and food, and would share the supplies with each other whenever they were needed. Since Tristan had a pokenav, he would be the all time navigator.

Just before sunset, they reached Petalburg City. They had to walk another half hour to finally get to the Pokemon Center. After entering, Gary got them their rooms while Tristan called his mom to waylay her worrying. After dropping off their stuff, they went out into the town and bought all the supplies they needed from the Pokemart, then stopped at the Ultrafresh and got all the food they would need. By the time they got back to the Pokemon Center, Tristan was tired so he went to bed. Gary meanwhile, stayed up a little while longer, doing research on the first gym leader he would be encountering, Roxanne.

--

Tristan's alarm started beeping at 8:30. He responded by throwing it across the room.

"_It's going to take a while before a get used to waking up this early again."_

Groaning, he got up and dressed and went down to the cafeteria for breakfast. He found Gary already there looking refreshed as ever.

"I don't know how you can stand to sleep the day away. I'm ready to get going!" Gary said with a grin.

"Yeah well, my internal clock is on Johto time. Don't push your luck this early in the morning or I'll get my Xatu to Psychic you back to bed again." Tristan replied causing Gary to laugh.

After breakfast the two set off from the Pokemon Center and made their way north towards Rustboro. They were eager to get to the town and get their first badges. Just as they had gotten out of the city, they heard a female voice shout

"Hey Tristan, is that you?"

The two turned around to see a group of three people standing there. A girl with brown hair in a red outfit, a boy with black hair under a league hat with a Pikachu on his shoulder, and a younger boy with glasses wearing green.

"May! How are you doing kiddo? And Maximus, what's up dude?" Tristan exclaimed.

"And if it isn't my rival. How are you doing Ketchum?" Gary said.

"Gary? What are you doing here? And who is that guy your with? And how does he know May and Max?" Ash asked

"Woah Gary, is this that kid you were talking about? He sure does ask a lot of questions." Tristan asked.

"Yeah it's him. Ash, this is Tristan and he's way cooler than you so act like a good boy. Where's your posse of former gym leaders? You and the red-head have a lover's quarrel?" Gary smirked.

"Huh? Oh, Misty had to stay in Cerulean and run the gym. And Brock went back to see his family. What's a lover's quarrel?" Ash responded.

Gary smacked his hand to his forehead. "Never mind Ash."

"So May what brings you out here with your brother and this punk?" Tristan asked.

"Oh! I'm starting my pokemon journey! I got a Torchic as my starter from Professor Birch. And Max wanted to come along too, so I let him." May answered.

"Wow, I didn't even realize you were old enough now to start a journey. Geez, I've gone from babysitting you to competing against you."

"What? What do you mean competing? Are you competing in the Hoenn region? But, why?" May stammered

"Well, I haven't done it yet and Gary asked me to come with him, so here I am."

"Great. Well I've got no chance of winning in the pokemon league with you in it."

"Why do you say that May? He doesn't look that tough. I bet I can cream this guy!" Ash proudly stated.

"You looking for a battle buddy? I'll take you right here right now!" Tristan said.

"You're on!"

"Fine then. Let's make it two on two."

"Um… I only have Pikachu with me right now." Ash said sheepishly.

"Ugh. I guess it's one on one then. Gary can you judge?"

"Sure. Choose your pokemon you two."

"Get out there Pikachu!"

"_Pikachu is an electric type and is weak only against ground attacks. So I think I'll go with…"_

"Flygon you're on!"

When Flygon appeared, Ash immediately whipped out his pokedex to see what the creature was. Tristan listened as the machine dinged and stated

"_**Flygon, the mystic pokemon. This pokemon is the final evolution of Trapinch. The flapping of its wings sounds like singing. To prevent detection by enemies, it hides itself by flapping up a cloud of desert sand." **_

"Wow Tristan, your Flygon looks awesome!"

"Thanks Max. Wait until you see it in action. Oh and I see what you mean about the pokedex thing Gary."

"I know. Anyway, begin!" Gary yelled.

"Pikachu, give it a Thunderbolt!"

"Flygon, tail to the ground."

The electrical attack hit the ground/dragon type and did approximately nothing.

"Now Flygon show them what damage can be done by your Steel Wing."

Flygon's wings glowed and it charged after Pikachu.

"Pikachu dodge that and do a quick attack!"

The attack just missed hitting the little rodent. As soon as it hit the ground, Pikachu launched a quick attack that hit Flygon.

"Flygon, underground now."

It immediately obeyed the command and went into the ground.

"It's using Dig. Pikachu, listen carefully for Flygon."

Everyone waited to see what Tristan was going to do. After exactly one minute, Flygon came out of the ground behind Pikachu.

"He missed!" May cried.

This was an incorrect statement as the second Pikachu turned to face Flygon, it unleashed a powerful Dragonbreath. Ash was stunned and watched as Pikachu backed up coughing in the attack.

"Now Flygon, Faint attack."

Before Pikachu could even think, Flygon attacked it again with the Faint attack.

"Pikachu, while it's close give it another Thunderbolt."

Pikachu unleashed another huge blast of electricity but it again did almost nothing.

"Hey Ash, you do realize that Flygon is a ground type right?" Gary asked.

"I knew that! Its just that Pikachu's Thunderbolt is really strong and I thought it could win the battle for us like usual…"

"That was foolish thinking. Flygon, finish this off with Hyper Beam."

"Pikachu look out!"

Unfortunately, Pikachu was just a little bit too worn out to be able to do that and was smashed by the beam, into a tree. When the dust cleared, Pikachu was down for the count.

"Pikachu is unable to battle. Tristan wins!" Gary said with a little bit more enthusiasm than what was called for.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried as he cradled it in his arms. "Are you okay?" It let out a "Pika" in response.

"Good work Flygon. Excellent work with the fake dig to Dragonbreath combo. Your timing was impeccable. Now enjoy a rest." Tristan said as he recalled his pokemon.

"That was a great battle Tristan! Show me the other pokemon you have with you! Max said.

While Tristan showed Max and May his other three pokemon, Gary went over to Ash.

"Nice battle Ash. Don't feel too bad. He's beaten me twice now."

"He's beaten you? Twice?" Ash said looking shocked.

"I know. That's why I'm travelling with him. Hopefully I can learn a thing or two from him."

"Hmph. He's not that great. I bet I could beat him with my other pokemon."

"Yeah, sure Ash. I know one thing though… it looks like you've got another rival now."

"You've got that right. Woah, is that a Sableye?" Ash asked as he walked over to the other three.

"Well there you are Ash. Have you ever seen a Sableye before?" Tristan asked.

"No. What pokemon do you have?" Ash asked.

"He's got a Sableye, Flygon, Starmie, and Charizard." Max answered.

"A Charizard? I have one too! Did your Charizard not listen to you and burn you after it evolved?"

"No. What kind of bad trainer has a Charizard that disobeys it?" Tristan said.

"Umm, just some kid I ran into in Johto…" Ash said.

"I'm sure." Tristan said. "Well, I think it's time we get moving Gary don't you?"

"I think it is."

"Well, this is goodbye for now. May, catch a lot of pokemon and make sure you get a grass or water type before you hit Rustboro if you can, because you'll be in trouble with just your Torchic. Max, make sure May knows what she's doing. And Ash, get a good long look at my backside, because it's going to be ahead of you from here on out. And make sure nothing happens to two of my most favorite people in the world or I'll make you into my Medicham's personal punching bag. See you guys!"

"Bye Tristan!" May and Max shouted as Ash stood there fuming.

Gary and Tristan walked on towards their destination with smiles. Tristan because he had gotten an easy win plus he was proud of May becoming a Trainer. Gary on the other hand was smiling because he just liked seeing Ash make a fool of himself. Plus he thought it was ironic that Ash's only two rivals in Hoenn were travelling together.

"_This is going to be an interesting journey…"_

_--_

**So how cliche is it to have Ash and co. show up? Well, they ain't gonna be showing up much so don't worry. Leave a review and get a gold medal!**


	7. Before I was but the Learner

**Thanks again to srgeman for reviewing as well as providing some creative inspiration. And have you all seen the Reader Traffic thing? It's awesome. Whoever is reading this from the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and Canada, thanks so much for checking out my story!**

--

Chapter 7-

After a couple days of hiking, the two reached Rustboro City. Along the way, Gary had caught a Poochyena that had taken a liking to his Umbreon, a Wingull, and a Cascoon that had already evolved into a Dustox, which he said would be way better than a Beautifly, something Tristan had personally agreed with. Both had been training their teams hard, fighting wild Zigzagoon, Shroomish, and Taillow that were abundant in the Petalburg Woods; Gary's motivation being to level up his team, Tristan's to get his team back in fighting shape. Both boys were confident that the upcoming gym battle would be a piece of cake. Upon arriving in the city, they checked into the Pokemon Center to get rooms and to have their pokemon healed. While waiting, they chatted about Roxanne.

"Yeah, Roxanne is a great lady. She teaches at the academy here. I took her classes for beginning trainers when I was younger. She's a really good teacher, but I never really battled her before." Tristan said.

"What's Roxanne like?" Gary asked.

"She's really nice and knows a lot about taking care of pokemon and interacting with them. She's also really good with helping kids overcome any fears they have of pokemon. She was an excellent trainer when she attended the academy and I think that is how she became the gym leader. I guess she became a teacher to pass on her knowledge."

"Did you take any other kinds of classes at the academy?"

"After I got out of the beginners classes, I took mostly battling classes- they covered strategy, types, ways to utilize the battlefield, all kinds of things like that, as well as how to care for your pokemon and also ways to train with different types of pokemon. I did take a pokemon medicine course one time which was kind of interesting, and I also took a coordinating class as an elective and I found it fairly unenjoyable. Did you attend any pokemon schools when you were a kid?"

"No, I learned all I needed to know about pokemon from my granddad. I just watched him doing his work in the lab and got lots of opportunities to interact with the pokemon that lived on his ranch. Who better to learn from than a pokemon professor, you know?"

"That's true. You were probably exposed to a lot of really cool things."

"Boys, your pokemon are ready." Nurse Joy called out.

They picked up their pokemon from Nurse Joy and made their way over to the gym. But when they got there…

"I'm sorry guys but Roxanne is at the school teaching a class right now. She is unavailable to battle today." the gym worker explained.

"Well that's great. What a reliable gym leader. What should we do now?" Gary asked.

"Hmmm. We could go over to the academy. I would like to see the old school again." Tristan said wistfully.

"Fine, let's do that. I'm kind of interested in seeing the pokemon academy after you described it. In fact, now that I think about it, I think my grandpa gives some lectures at the Rustboro Academy."

"Really? Wow, maybe I could see him! That would be so cool. Let's go!"

The two trainers walked from the gym over to the academy. Tristan showed Gary around the academy, showing him the classrooms and how they were each specially designed to accommodate what was taught in them, the battlefields, the pool for the water pokemon, and where all of the pokeballs were stored with the schools pokemon. Eventually they ran into the headmaster of the school, who showed them to where Roxanne was teaching her class for beginners.

"Ms. Roxanne, we have a former student of yours who would like to see you." the headmaster said, showing Tristan and Gary into the room.

"Tristan Chillar, is that you?" Roxanne asked.

"It is Ms. Roxanne. And this is Gary Oak, Professor Oak's grandson." he replied.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Roxanne." Gary said.

"Oh, it's great to see you again Tristan, and you can call me just Roxanne now that you have graduated. And it is nice to meet the grandson of the great Professor Oak. What brings you to the academy again?"

"Well, we're both here to challenge you and your gym." Tristan explained.

"You don't say! Well, I'm teaching today so we will have to put it off until tomorrow. Hey, I've got an idea, why don't you two talk to the students about your pokemon and your travels! Would you do that for me?"

Tristan and Gary looked at each other, and then turned to Roxanne. "Okay!" they said.

Tristan walked up to the front of the classroom and began to talk.

"The most important thing you kids should know about pokemon is…uhhh…well you see, umm… " Tristan stammered. "Gosh, I don't know where to begin!"

"I'll take over from here." Gary said. "Have any of you kids heard of the Indigo League…?"

Gary talked about his travels through Kanto and Johto. Eventually Tristan was able to get talking about his own journeys through those regions. After answering some of the kids' questions, they went outside and showed them the pokemon that they had. The students loved Gary's Umbreon, Poochyena, and Dustox and Tristan's Starmie, Flygon, and Charizard, but were a bit wary of his Sableye, though one kid dressed in all black took an interest in the dark/ghost type. After an hour of interacting with the pokemon, Roxanne told the kids that it was time to get back to their class. She talked to Tristan and Gary before she went back in.

"Thank you both for spending some time with the children. It really is good for them to hear from experienced trainers, and to see such accomplished trainers such as yourselves is a real treat. I open my gym at nine o'clock tomorrow, so you two can stop by anytime. Have a good night!"

"Thanks Roxanne, you too." they both chimed in unison.

As they headed back to the Pokemon Center, the teens chatted about how much fun it was letting the students play with their pokemon. Tristan commented about how weird it was being the one in the guest speaker role, when he had been on the other side of those lessons just a few years ago. When they returned to the Pokemon Center, they grabbed some dinner and then retired to their rooms to map out their individual strategies on how to beat Roxanne. They agreed to wake up at eight so they could get to the gym as early as possible. Both went to bed confident in their strategies and excited about their battles for tomorrow.

--

Neither trainer got much sleep, but both had so much adrenaline pumping through their veins that it made no difference. They got ready and had breakfast, talking very little throughout the meal. At last they made their way out of the center and headed towards the gym. They arrived right after nine and walked in. Roxanne was waiting for them.

"I had a feeling you guys would be getting here early. Who is up first?"

"Uhh…did we decide on that Gary?"

"No, but you can go first."

"No, I insist that you go."

"Please, it would be an honor to watch you go first."

"Okay, I can see this is going nowhere." Roxanne said as the teacher in her came out. "Why don't you do rock, paper, scissors and whoever wins gets to decide who goes first!"

"Alright." they said. "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" Gary won. "I choose to go second." he said.

"Fine. Alright Roxanne, I'm ready. Let's do this."

Roxanne and Tristan walked towards the field while Gary went into the stands. The field was covered in rocks of all sizes. Both of them stepped into the trainer's boxes and waited for the judge. One of her older students stepped up.

"This will be a two on two pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Tristan from Azure Town, will be battling the gym leader, Roxanne, for a Stone badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Trainers ready?"

"Ready." they said.

"Begin!"

"Go Geodude!"

"Hmm…a Geodude. Okay. Go Flygon!"

"_Why didn't he send out his Starmie?"_ Gary wondered.

"Flygon, Steel Wing!"

"Defense Curl, Geodude!"

The Steel Wing attack did little damage to Geodude.

"Now Geodude, do a Tackle attack!"

"Fly up high Flygon!"

The tackle attack just missed the ground/dragon type.

"Flygon do a Dragonbreath attack."

The attack managed to hit Geodude, who took some damage.

"Show them your Rollout Geodude."

"Get up high again Flygon!"

It looked like the attack was going to miss Flygon when suddenly Geodude launched off one of the rocks like it was a ramp and slammed into the bottom of Flygon. It yelled in pain.

"Okay, that was bad. I need to finish this up now. Flygon underground! 120!"

Flygon hurtled towards the battlefield and went underground.

"Oh-no, Geodude is weak against ground type attacks. Geodude, move around and don't let Flygon get a hold on your position!"

Geodude did its rollout and started darting and weaving all over the battlefield. After a while though it got tired and started rolling slower and slower. Eventually it came to a stop completely out of breath.

"Geodude don't stop!"

Geodude couldn't bring itself to move but was starting to catch its breath. It was about to move again when a giant crash threw the rock pokemon towards the ceiling. It was Flygon's dig attack.

"Excellent Flygon! Steel Wing while it's still in the air!"

The attack sent Geodude hurtling back to the ground where it slammed into a rock. The pokemon did not get back up.

"Geodude is unable to battle. Flygon wins!"

"Alright! Good work Flygon."

"Geodude return. You deserve a rest. Nicely played there Tristan. I can see now that the 120 you yelled was to let Flygon know that it should come back up in 120 seconds. And all that time you just let Geodude tire itself out. That was clever. However, my next pokemon is stronger! Go Nosepass!"

"_What is that pokemon?_" Gary wondered as he pulled out his pokedex.

"_**Nosepass, the compasss pokemon. Its body emits a powerful magnetism. It feeds on prey that is pulled in by the force. Its magnetism is stronger in cold seasons."**_

"I see. Flygon return. Go Starmie!"

"Uh-oh. Better make this quick. Nosepass use Rock Tomb!"

Rocks immediately sprang out of the ground and trapped Starmie.

"Starmie break free with Rapid Spin!"

The rocks began to shake and then shattered as Starmie broke free.

"Now Nosepass, use our secret weapon. Zap Cannon!"

"Shoot! Get out of the way Starmie!"

Starmie immediately leaped but got hit by part of the electric attack and took some damage. It fell to the ground.

"Rock Tomb again!"

Rocks again shot up around Starmie.

"Okay, I'm officially mad. Starmie come out of those rocks charging buddy. Get behind Nosepass!"

Starmie did another Rapid Spin and this time spun through the air and got right behind Nosepass.

"End it! Hydro Pump!

Water gushed out of Starmie and hit the rock type with full power knocking it right over on its face. After the attack, Nosepass was flailing its arms and legs trying to get up.

"Oh, this is embarrassing. Try and get up Nosepass!"

"Don't let it up Starmie. Bubblebeam!"

A stream of bubbles hit Nosepass again. This time when the attack stopped, Nosepass was not flailing.

"Nosepass is unable to battle. The winner is Starmie. The match goes to the challenger, Tristan!"

"YEAH! Starmie you're the best!" he shouted jumping up and down hugging his pokemon.

"Nosepass return. You did your best. Nice job Tristan. You have defeated me. As proof, here is the Stone badge."

She handed the badge to him.

"Thanks Roxanne. It feels good to get a win again. And you're still the best teacher ever in my book."

"Thanks Tristan. I can see you did a great job listening in my classes. Your strategy was excellent."

"Oh stop, you're embarrassing me. So do you want Gary to come in?"

"No, I need to get these two healed. Tell Gary I'll battle with him when I get back from the Pokemon Center."

Tristan went to the lobby where he was greeted by Gary.

"Nice job. Can I see the badge?"

"Sure" Tristan replied pulling out his badge case containing a shiny, new Stone badge.

"Cool. So why didn't you use Starmie from the start?"

"Starmie is weak against ground types, and Geodude is a rock/ground type. However, Geodude itself is weak against ground type attacks and Flygon is ground/dragon. Nosepass is only a rock type, so I knew Starmie would have no problem against it."

"You think too much."

"Whatever it takes to win! Plus didn't you say you wanted to learn from me on this journey? Well that was lesson number one. Gain the knowledge, practice the knowledge, use the knowledge, and win."

"Thanks professor. Now when is my battle?"

"Roxanne is going to the Pokemon Center and when she gets back, you're up."

--

The two waited in the lobby for Roxanne to return. While they were waiting, Tristan let out Flygon and Starmie to discuss the battle with them. Meanwhile, Gary was thinking about Tristan's first "lesson." He pulled out his pokedex for some last minute research. After about a half-hour, Roxanne returned. This time, Gary followed her onto the field while Tristan sat in the stands. He watched as the two took their positions. Again one of her students stepped up to be the judge.

"This will be a two on two pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Gary from Pallet Town, will be battling the gym leader, Roxanne, for a Stone badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Trainers ready?"

"Ready." they said.

"Begin!"

"Go Geodude!"

"Go Wingull!"

"_That's an excellent choice. Wingull is impervious to ground attacks, but it's weak against rock. And Geodude is weak against water but strong against flying. This should be interesting."_

The only rock attack that Geodude knew was Rollout. Gary had his Wingull dodge the attack with its speed, then knocked the rock type out with repeated blasts of Water Gun. Wingull only suffered two tackle attacks. When Nosepass was sent out, it connected on a Zap Cannon and knocked Wingull out. Gary then sent out his Umbreon. Even though its Quick Attack was almost useless, its Shadow Ball and Faint attack were powerful enough to knock Nosepass out of commission. Tristan cheered for Gary when the judge announced the battle was over. He watched as Roxanne chatted with Gary and gave him his badge. He met up with both of them in the lobby.

"Well, this has been a tough day. You two are a double dose of pain for a gym leader. The others better watch out! Good luck on the rest of your journey, and I hope to see you both at the Ever Grande Conference!" Roxanne said.

"Thanks Roxanne." they said. "Hey Roxanne, I meant to ask you something. Since you are an authority on rock types, I was wondering if you could answer a question I have." Tristan asked.

"Sure, what is it Tristan?"

"Well, I'm trying to complete my collection of dual-type pokemon, and I need a Solrock and a Lunatone, which are both part rock, as you probably know. Could you tell me where I might find them?"

"Let me think…. I'm pretty sure you can find both of them only at Meteor Falls. That is where you should look."

"Thanks for the help Roxanne. See ya!"

And with that they went out the door, both proud of their first big accomplishments in their journey through Hoenn.

--

**Well that was my longest chapter yet- over 2700 words! Leave reviews to soothe my tired fingers...**


	8. She's as Cold as Ice

**Srgeman, thanks so much for your reviews!**

--

Chapter 8-

Gary and Tristan got their pokemon healed at the Pokemon Center. While they were waiting, they couldn't help but go over a play-by-play of both of their gym battles. In the end, both agreed that Roxanne had stood no chance next to their battling prowess. After Nurse Joy gave them back their pokemon, they headed out the door.

"Okay, I think we should go up to Meteor Falls now, then come back and take a boat to Dewford Town to go up against Brawly." Tristan said.

"Why can't we do that after we get our badges from Dewford? From looking at the map, we can come back to Rustboro, go north to Meteor Falls, and then onto Lavaridge and Mauville." Gary countered.

"But, but that's completely out of order!" Tristan exclaimed.

Just as they were about to get into their second argument of the day, they were interrupted by a girl.

"Hey Chillar, is that you?" the girl said coming up from behind Tristan.

_Oh Mew, I know that voice._

"Hmmm…given that I now feel physically ill, I've forgotten what happiness feels like, and all I want to do is go into a corner and cry, is it you Satan?" Tristan asked before turning around.

Before them stood a girl that looked to be about his age. She was slightly taller than Tristan, and had black hair tied up into a ponytail and green eyes. She was wearing a fairly tight red t-shirt and khaki capris. Gary thought she looked pretty hot; Tristan had other things on his mind.

"Still the little gentleman I see. Who's your friend?" she asked.

"Gary, this is reason for months of therapy. Reason for months of therapy, this is Gary."

"My real name is Gabrielle." she said, glaring at Tristan.

"I see. It's nice to meet you. Tristan has told me a lot about you." Gary said.

"Yes, I'm sure he made me out to be the devil. Always the sore loser. Did he tell you that he cried after I beat him at Johto?"

"Well, I'm glad to see you're as bitchy as ever. What brings you here?" Tristan asked.

"Oh I was just passing through here on my way to a contest. By the way, now that I've won a pokemon league, I decided to become a coordinator and win a Ribbon Cup. Isn't that great of me?" she asked.

"Terrific."

"So, why are you out here in Rustboro with your boyfriend?"

"Ha-ha. I'm challenging the Hoenn League with Gary." he said looking angrily at her.

"Well, it looks like all that therapy paid off for you. Here I thought you'd be unable to step out on another battlefield, let alone show your face in a league again. Glad to see you back. Too bad I won't be able to see you in the finals again."

"Yeah, it's a tragedy. Well we better be on our way. We were heading towards Meteor Falls right Gary?" Tristan said in a strained voice.

"Oh really? I'm heading that way myself! We should go up together, wouldn't that just be fun?" Gabrielle said.

"Oh, I just remembered. We're actually heading to Dewford Town to battle Brawly. How forgetful of me." Tristan quickly said.

"That's too bad. You know how I love spending time with you Tristan. Oh well. Good luck!" she said as she started off on her way waving goodbye with a smile on her face.

"Yep. Bye!" Tristan said. After she had gotten far enough away, Tristan collapsed onto the nearby bench. "Well, that was awful. I'm going to need some time to recover from that. How about you get us a boat to Dewford while I find the nearest store that will sell me some happy pills. We'll meet at the Pokemon Center." Tristan said as he started to walk away looking rather pale.

"Oookay."

Gary went down to the docks and looked around for a boat rental. After securing a boat that would leave later that afternoon, Gary headed back to the Pokemon Center. Tristan wasn't there when he arrived, so he sat down to read the latest _Pokemon Trainer Weekly_. After about 45 minutes, Tristan came in looking much more relaxed than before.

"Well that's much better. So, ready to go?"

"Yeah, our boat leaves in six hours. So do you always get like that when you see Gabrielle?"

"Pretty much. She is a living reminder of my most monumental failure to date. I can't tell you how hard it is to work so hard and get _that_ close to reaching your dreams only to fall short and watch someone else live that dream. Back then I was really uptight and stuff, so I put in a ton of time into training and did not take losing well. After the loss, I became really depressed, so my mom put me in therapy to get over it. I was on some good anti-depressants for a couple of months, but eventually was weaned off of them. To tell you the truth, that's actually the best I've ever reacted around her. Usually I get so angry from seeing her that I'm unable to even talk."

"Well, that's healthy." Gary said sarcastically. "Anyway, what do you want to do while we're waiting?"

"We can check out Route 116. Maybe we can battle some wild pokemon or something."

"Whatever. Let's go."

The two left their bags at the Pokemon Center and went out onto Route 116. They indeed saw and battled a lot of wild pokemon including Poochyena, Skitty, and Taillow. Just when they were getting ready to head back, they came across a Nincada.

"Oh my god, you have got to be kidding me. I need to catch that Nincada." Tristan said.

"Why, is that one of the dual-types you need?" Gary asked.

"Yes. I need this Nincada so that I can evolve it into a Shedinja which is a ghost/bug type."

Gary pointed his pokedex at Nincada while Tristan sent out his Charizard.

"_**Nincada, the trainee pokemon. It makes its nest at the roots of a mighty tree. Using its whisker-like antennae, it probes its surroundings in the pitch-black darkness of soil."**_

"Charizard, give it a Flamethrower, but not too much."

The fire attack hit the Nincada knocking it over. But it got back up and launched a Fury Swipes at Charizard.

"Feisty little guy, I like that. Charizard, finish this off with an Aerial Ace."

Gary watched in awe as the fire type pulled off the difficult flying attack, hitting the mark and knocking the Nincada out.

"Go Pokeball!" Tristan threw the ball at the Nincada and it went in. After a couple of seconds, it dinged, signaling a successful capture.

"Yes! I finally captured a Nincada. Welcome to my team little guy." Tristan said happily. "Maybe this wasn't such a bad day after all. Good work Charizard. Return."

The two went back to the Pokemon Center to pick up their bags, then hopped on their boat to Dewford Island.

--

**Short chapter, I know. Reviews anyway?**


	9. Double Down

**Thanks to pikachuhunter1 for several reviews and to srgeman for reviewing.**

--

Chapter 9-

Gary and Tristan were on their way to Dewford Town via boat. The rental company they had gotten their ride over from had provided a boat and captain that would bring them over and stay there as long as they were on Dewford, and then bring them back. The boat was basically a transformed fishing boat with some big engines on the back. Fast was an understatement on the way that thing moved. Gary and Tristan were holding on for dear life. They would feel the boat fly into the air over every ripple and brace for the hard impact when the boat came back down- their seats did not have cushions. After feeling his vertebrae starting to break, Tristan calmly tapped the captain on the shoulder and informed him that they were indeed not running from the law, there was no emergency, and that he could slow down without the world coming to an end. After things calmed down, the teens finally had a chance to relax and enjoy the ride.

After a while, Tristan decided to call out his Nincada.

"Alright, let's see some info about you." as he held his pokedex up to his newest pokemon.

"_**Nincada, male. Level 17. Known attacks: Fury Swipes, Sand-attack, Leech Life, and Harden."**_

"I'll take that. I'll need to make sure I keep a slot open so you evolve into a Shedinja. I'm going to have to purchase a TM 10 so you can learn Hidden Power. The rest of the moves I want you'll learn on your own." he said, talking to his newest pokemon.

"You already know the moveset you want from your Nincada?" Gary asked incredulously.

"Gary, I know the moveset of _every_ pokemon I haven't caught yet. I keep a detailed spreadsheet in my backpack. It took forever to put together."

"I've never met someone that is so…I don't even know how to describe it. You're too prepared. I thought I was a know it all, but you…"

"I don't think that. I just know what it will take to put together the strongest team possible. And I don't like to leave anything up to chance, so I plan ahead. It's just the way I am." Tristan explained.

--

The two rode on the rest of the way in relative silence. When they got to the pokemon center, Tristan got his Nincada healed and went to the phones to call his mom. Gary meanwhile got the rooms and unloaded his stuff. When he got back to the lobby, Tristan was walking away from the phones holding a pokeball.

"I decided to send Flygon home since she's gotten a chance to be in a gym battle now and traded for my Jumpluff." Tristan said. "Want to have a practice battle to get both Jumpluff and Nincada some experience?"

"Sure, I could use a warm-up myself. Let's go outside."

They walked over to an area on the beach that was clear enough to have a battle.

"I say we make things interesting and have a double battle. Have you ever been in one before?" Tristan asked.

"No, but it sounds like something I'd like to try. Let's do it."

"Alright. Go Nincada and Jumpluff."

"Go Poochyena and Wingull. I'm gonna try and level these guys up a bit."

"Sounds good to me. I'll let you make the first move."

"Okay Poochyena use Tackle on Jumpluff, Wingull use Wing Attack on Nincada."

"Jumpluff counter with your Tackle, Nincada dodge it."

Jumpluff's Tackle was stronger than Poochyena's causing the dog to fly back, while Nincada successfully dodged the Water Gun.

"Jumpluff get a Poisonpowder on Poochyena while it's down."

The Poisonpowder landed on the dark dog and poisoned it.

"Wingull, use Wing Attack on Nincada, Poochyena, Bite Jumpluff."

"Jumpluff, protect Nincada from the Wing Attack!"

The Grass/Flying type took the brunt of both hits and was sent flying back.

"Now Nincada, get Wingull with Fury Swipes."

Nincada managed to get several strikes in on Wingull before the bird managed to fly away.

"Wingull, get back at Nincada with another Water Gun. Poochyena use Sand Attack on Jumpluff."

"Nincada dodge that!"

Nincada jumped out of the way, but Jumpluff again took another attack.

"Jumpluff, use Aerial Ace on Wingull. Nincada use Harden."

"Wingull dodge it. Poochyena use Tackle on Jumpluff."

"Protect Jumpluff Nincada."

Nincada took Poochyena's tackle and the Aerial Ace missed Wingull.

"Now Wingull use Supersonic on both of them."

The Supersonic hit, confusing Nincada, but Jumpluff was not confused.

"Jumpluff, quick use Leech Seed on Wingull."

The seed landed on the bird and began zapping its power away.

"Poochyena use Tackle on Jumpluff, Wingull use Water Gun again on Nincada."

"Jumpluff, dodge it!"

Jumpluff jumped out of the way but Nincada took the Water Gun and was knocked out.

"Quick now Jumpluff use Aerial Ace on Poochyena."

Aerial Ace hit and took health from the dog. The effects of the move and the long lasting poison took its effects and knocked Poochyena out.

"Wingull use Wing Attack on Jumpluff."

"Do whatever it takes to dodge Jumpluff."

Jumpluff got out of Wingull's way with a big jump into the air that Jumpluff are known for.

"Now hit Wingull with your Tackle."

Jumpluff took a huge jump and smashed into Wingull. The combined effects of that and the Leech Seed took its toll and Wingull was knocked out. The battle was over.

"Well Gary, you've still yet to beat me. I must say you did great for your first double battle." Tristan said as he walked over to his pokemon to look them over and congratulate them.

"Thanks Tristan. I'll get you sometime. If it wasn't for that poisoning and Leech Seed I would have gotten you."

"Well, that's why I did those attacks. I needed some way to weaken your pokemon because I was at a huge disadvantage if you didn't know…"

"Dudes that was an awesome battle!" a voice said from a few feet away. They both turned to see a guy with blue hair wearing an orange shirt and jeans.

"Thanks, I'm Gary Oak from Pallet Town"

Tristan just stood there with his mouth open. After a couple seconds, he closed it and started to shake with excitement. Then he suddenly yelled "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! YOU'RE BRAWLY! YOU ARE MY HERO!!"

Gary looked between shock at Tristan's outburst and surprise that he had just run into the next gym leader.

"Right you are dude. Now if I remember, aren't you Sophie Chillar's kid? You look like her, and I swear I've seen you at the League Christmas party."

"Yeah, I'm Tristan!"

"That's right, I remember. Anyway, cool battle. Both of you have good pokemon. Of course Tristan was at a huge disadvantage. I'm surprised you lasted that long."

"Yeah well, I've had Jumpluff a really long time, but I've only just caught Nincada. You'll be seeing more of them at our gym battle."

"Oh you're challenging my gym? Are you challenging me too Gary?"

"Yes I am. Speaking of which, can we come by tomorrow to do it?"

"Sure, no problem. I've actually got a surfing competition to judge this evening. You guys should stop by!"

"We will. We've got to get our pokemon healed right Tristan?" Tristan was just staring in awe at Brawly. "Well I'm sure he'd agree with me if he wasn't dazed by your mere presence. Anyways, we'll see you later!"

"See ya dudes."

After Brawly walked away, Gary called his Wingull over and had it use Water Gun on Tristan. This snapped him back into the real world.

"Whoa, what happened? Was I seriously just talking to Brawly? That wasn't a dream was it?" Tristan asked

"Yes, it was real. Now can we get our pokemon healed?" Gary asked as he returned his pokemon to their pokeballs.

"Oh right. Nincada and Jumpluff return."

After giving Nurse Joy their pokemon, the two went to the cafeteria to eat dinner.

"So about that battle…" Gary started. "How were you able to beat me if you were at a disadvantage like you said?"

"Well, Nincada was weak to flying and water moves, while Jumpluff was just weak to the flying. I just dodged the flying attacks, but I had Jumpluff move in and take all the water moves you were using to try and protect Nincada. That's a useful strategy- use it when you can. Also, my Jumpluff is very strong compared to your pokemon, so the disadvantage wasn't that huge. You noticed the other part of the plan- the Poisonpowder and Leech Seed. Those take health away the whole time. Usually the other trainer forgets about it until their pokemon has fainted. A nice little present you get when working against a part grass type."

"Hmph. Sounds like just luck to me. Anyway, is there a reason behind your… uh… unnatural obsession with Brawly?" Gary asked.

"Brawly is my hero! He's the coolest gym leader ever! He spends all day surfing and being at the beach and getting with all the ladies. I would kill to have his life."

"Lazy if you ask me. Is he even a good gym leader?"

"Are you kidding? He's incredible! He trained with Chuck from Johto and Bruno of your Elite Four! He's so awesome, that he trains his pokemon by surfing with them. Can you beat that?"

"Okay, so he sounds kinda cool. Are we going to that surfing thing tonight?"

"I'd like to, but I really need to train Nincada, since I'll be relying heavily on him tomorrow. You can go if you want."

"Nah, surfing was never an interest of mine. I guess I'll train too."

The two trainers spent the rest of the night training and strategizing for their upcoming battles with Brawly.

--

**So should I let Gary finally win one? Tell me in your reviews!**


	10. The Idol Falls

**Well, classes are starting up again, so updates will probably be weekly. A big thank you to srgeman, Lyokoluva, and pikachuhunter1 for reviewing!**

--

**Chapter 10-**

Both trainers were energized and ready to get their second badges. They had agreed at breakfast that since Tristan had gone first last time, Gary could battle first this time. They went up to Brawly's gym and entered.

"Greetings dudes, and welcome to the Dewford gym. Who's battling me first?" Brawly asked.

"I will." Gary said.

"Alright, let's do this."

The two took their spots on the two ends of the battle field while Tristan watched from the sidelines. The judge stepped up to the middle of the field.

"This will be a two on two pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Gary from Pallet Town, will be battling the gym leader, Brawly, for a Knuckle badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Trainers ready?"

"Ready." they replied.

"Then let's roll!"

"Go Machop."

"You're up Dustox."

"Good choice Gary. But don't expect to win this. Machop use Leer."

"Shake that off Dustox and give it your Confusion."

The psychic attack did double damage to Machop and knocked it down.

"While it's down, use Gust."

"Stand strong Machop!"

The Gust attack dealt another heaping amount of damage to Machop.

"Machop, use Karate Chop."

"Get out of its range Dustox. Then Psybeam."

Dustox got as high as it could in the gym then shot the beam of energy at Machop, connecting again. Machop got knocked down and did not get back up.

"Machop is unable to battle. Dustox wins!"

"Nice work Dustox."

"Machop return. Take a rest. Excellent battling Gary- your Dustox is a challenge to fighting types. Now try out my Makuhita!" Brawly said releasing his second pokemon.

"Wow, I've never seen a Makuhita before!" Gary exclaimed.

"_Remember the last time you fought unfamiliar pokemon. Use your pokedex…_

_pokedex…pokedex…"_ said a soft voice in the stands.

"Shut up Tristan." Gary said pulling out his pokedex.

"_**Makuhita, the Guts pokemon. It loves to toughen up its body above all else. If you hear quaking rumbles in a cave, it is the sound of a Makuhita undertaking strenuous training."**_

"Makuhita use Bulk Up!"

"Of course. Dustox, use Psybeam."

The beam hit Makuhita as it charged up its strength. The attack did less damage than with Machop.

"Now Makuhita, Sand-Attack."

"Counter with Gust."

The two attacks collided, but the Sand Attack overpowered the Gust thanks to the Bulk Up and brought Dustox to the ground.

"While it's down use Tackle into an Arm Thrust."

"Try and get out of there Dustox!"

Dustox struggled to get airborne again but not before getting slammed by the Tackle into the wall, then pummeled by the Arm Thrust. The moth lay still on the ground.

"Dustox is unable to battle. Makuhita wins."

"Return Dustox. You were a big help. Go Wingull."

"A flying type. This should be fun. Makuhita, bring it down with a Sand-Attack."

"Dodge that and use Growl."

Wingull's superior speed allowed it to escape the oncoming sand and unleashed a rather un-intimidating growl that sounded more like a squawk than anything.

"Good job, now use Supersonic."

Almost immediately, pulses began to emit from Wingull and caused Makuhita to begin swinging around the air wildly.

"Oh no, Makuhita's all confused. Come on buddy, think of the waves and calm yourself down!"

"Wing Attack it while it's confused."

Wingull dove in and attacked Makuhita, using its speed to avoid the wild punches it threw. After three attacks, Makuhita seemed to snap out of its stupor.

"Alright, you're back with me dude. Give him a Tackle."

"Dodge that, and Water Gun from a distance."

Makuhita jumped at Wingull, but the seagull-like pokemon flew high and out of the range of Makuhita, and fired its Water Gun, connecting with Brawly's pokemon, sending it flying into the ground. It did not get back up.

"Makuhita is unable to battle. The winner is Wingull. The match goes to Gary."

"Nice work Wingu-" Gary was cut off by his Wingull suddenly glowing as it sat on the ground. When it was over, a Pelipper sat in its place.

"Awesome- you evolved!" Gary exclaimed. Pelipper gave a squawk of happiness.

"Well Gary congratulations on your new pokemon as well as defeating me in battle. Here is the proof of your victory, a Knuckle badge."

"Thanks Brawly, it was fun."

Tristan had by now gotten down to the field himself.

"Gary great battle! You really handed it to him. And nice job on the evolution. I figured it would be coming soon."

"Thanks Tristan. Want to see the badge?"

"Of course!"

As Tristan and Gary looked at the badge, Brawly informed him that he would be going to the Pokemon Center to heal his pokemon and would be back for their battle in about an hour and a half.

--

While Brawly was getting his pokemon healed, Tristan gave his two pokemon a pep talk as Gary watched.

"Ok guys, Gary got his badge, now it's our turn. Both of you are going to have a type resistance to his fighting type, but don't get cocky. Nincada, your bug type moves have decreased effects so we won't be using them. Jumpluff, that Aerial Ace has a big advantage so I want you putting everything you've got into it when I call for it. We are going to win this. Ready?" Tristan asked.

"Jump!"

"Nin!"

"Alright. Now back into your pokeballs." he said as he recalled them.

A little while later Brawly returned and Tristan followed him to the battlefield while Gary took his turn on the sidelines. The trainers took their positions on the two ends of the field and took their ready stances and waited for the judge to speak.

"This will be a two on two pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Tristan from Azure Town, will be battling the gym leader, Brawly, for a Knuckle badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Trainers ready?"

"Ready." they said.

"Then begin!"

"Go Machop."

"Go Jumpluff."

"Machop use Karate Chop."

"Dodge that."

Jumpluff leaped into the air before Machop even had a chance to move towards it.

"Now Leech Seed."

The seed plopped right on top of Machop's head and immediately sprouted vines that started to sap its energy.

"Use Bulk Up Machop." _Gotta build up some defense._

"Move in with Aerial Ace."

While Machop sat there glowing, Jumpluff moved in with a speedy and highly effective Aerial Ace that connected. Machop flew back but got back up.

"Alright Machop give a Leer."

"Use Tackle."

With Machop mustering up a fierce Leer, Jumpluff still moved in and gave a good Tackle.

"Now into the air."

"Watch out for it Machop- if it gets close, try to grab it."

"Sprinkle your Poisonpowder."

The powder floated down and got all over Machop. It began to furiously rub its eyes trying to get the powder out.

"Finish this Jumpluff."

Jumpluff knew what to do as it launched its Aerial Ace for the knockout. It connected and Machop was done.

"Machop is unable to battle. Jumpluff is the winner."

"Nice job Jumpluff. Just like we discussed."

"Machop return. You're as tough as your mom, Tristan. I expected nothing less. Go Makuhita."

"Jumpluff return. Go Nincada."

"Begin the battle." the judge said.

"Makuhita use Bulk-Up."

"Nincada use Harden."

Both pokemon momentarily shone as they raised their individual stats.

"Now Makuhita use Tackle."

"Sand-Attack Nincada."

Nincada kicked up a load of sand, but Makuhita still came through and connected.

"Get _up_ Nincada and try Leech Life."

"Show it your Sand-Attack Makuhita."

The Leech Life failed as the sand swirled around the battlefield. But when the sand settled, Nincada was missing. Nincada had gone up and over Makuhita and was now behind it.

"Now Fury Swipes."

Nincada began furiously scratching at Makuhita's back.

"Swing around and give it an Arm Thrust."

Makuhita connected and sent Nincada off, but the attack did half damage due to Nincada's resistance. The battle went on like that for awhile. Makuhita was limited in dealing damage with its fighting moves so had to keep relying on Tackle, which was tough to get a hit with given Nincada's huge speed advantage. Nincada was limited in using mostly Fury Swipes since Leech Life did minimal damage. Finally after 15 minutes of back and forth, both pokemon and trainers were tired.

"I'm done with this, Nincada return. Go Jumpluff." Tristan said.

"_Uh-oh"_ thought Brawly.

"Jumpluff use Aerial Ace."

"Dodge it Makuhita."

Unfortunately for Brawly, his pokemon was too tired to move fast enough to dodge. The attack connected, and Makuhita was out.

"Makuhita is unable to battle. Jumpluff is the winner. The match goes to the challenger, Tristan."

"Finally. Thanks again for the help Jumpluff. Return."

"You did well Makuhita- rest now. Tristan that was quite an endurance match. You have definitely earned this Knuckle Badge."

"Thank you so much Brawly. It was an honor…oh heck this fulfilled one of my most wonderful dreams! You're amazing, you're so cool, you're…"

At this point Gary had grabbed Tristan and started to drag him back to the Pokemon Center.

"Thanks for the battles Brawly!" he called out.

"No, thank you dudes. Go forth and surf the world!"

After a few minutes of walking, Tristan finally snapped back to his normal self, and realized he was holding a badge.

"Woah, I got Brawly's badge. Was it a good battle? It seems fuzzy to me."

"Yeah, you were great. Can we please get our pokemon healed?"

"Oh sure, right. Sorry."

With two badges down, the duo were well on their way to their goal of competing in the Ever Grande Conference championship.

--

Meanwhile in the shadows, a figure was closing up a video camera and getting up to leave.

"Yes, he and his pokemon are everything the boss will want in a soldier."

--

**Those battles were tough to write! It took forever. Anyways, reviews will help me get through my new classes with a smile! :)**


	11. Descent into Darkness

**A big thank you to srgeman and tala-fangirl for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 11**

Tristan and Gary decided to spend an extra day on Dewford to let themselves and their pokemon relax and enjoy the water and beach. Starmie, Jumpluff, Poochyena, and Pelliper all played in the water, Charizard and Dustox got a chance to stretch their wings, Nincada and Sableye built a sandcastle, while Umbreon sat between Gary and Tristan (who were fast asleep in the sun after doing some intense surfing, or in Gary's case attempting to surf and not drown) and watched over everyone.

After the rest day, it was back to the boat, where Tristan spelled out again that there was no need for the captain to race towards Rustboro port like a bat out of hell. During the rather enjoyable ride, Tristan and Gary planned out the next few days.

"Well, our first stop has got to be Meteor Falls so I can get a Lunatone and Solrock. Then I'll be down to needing only six more dual-types, well after Nincada evolves it will be six." Tristan said

"What are those other six?"

"They would be Altaria, or a Swablu I can raise to an Altaria, a Tropius, a Relicanth, a Surskit, a Metagross, which I can evolve from a Beldum, and a Claydol, another one that I can evolve."

"Do you know where you can find those pokemon?"

"Well, I sort of do…"

"_Sigh"_

"Anyway, after that, we can make our way up past Fallarbor Town and over Mt. Chimney and hit up Lavaridge and Flannery."

"So Lavaridge is the next gym."

"Yep."

"Excellent. I can't wait."

"Yeah. And you'll have some good opportunities to catch some more pokemon."

"Excellent. I can't wait."

"…."

After that the duo stayed pretty much silent until they arrived back in Rustboro. Their first stop was the market to replenish their supplies, and then they made a quick stop in the Pokemon Center for Tristan to send back his Jumpluff, Charizard, and Sableye, and withdraw his Swampert. Then they hit the road.

--

After two days of hiking, the two finally passed a sign that let them know they had entered the area of Meteor Falls. They made their campsite near the falls. After dinner, since it was Gary's turn to do dishes, Tristan decided to go out and look around to see if he could get one his two pokemon that night. He decided to only bring Swampert and Starmie along, since both were strong against Solrock and Lunatone's rock/psychic combo. As he made his way along the water, he saw plenty of other pokemon, but couldn't find his targets. He decided to go over to the waterfalls and climb up. He figured Lunatone would probably want to be near the moon. As he climbed, he thanked his lucky stars that there was enough moon that the Lunatone would probably be out, but not enough to where they were at full strength.

As he crested the top, he hitched his breath. There was a Lunatone! He thanked the lucky stars that he forgot the first time and went in. He quietly released his Swampert.

"Swampert, use Water Gun, full force." he whispered, hoping to get the upper edge early.

The Water Gun smashed into the clueless Lunatone and knocked it onto the ground.

"Now use Muddy Water."

More water cascaded onto the shocked Lunatone. It was already looking very weakened. However, it righted itself and let off a Psywave. It hit Swampert.

"Excellent. That's one of the moves I wanted you to have. Swampert use Take Down."

Just as the Take Down was about to hit, the Lunatone used a Rock Throw. The two attacks collided. Both pokemon took damage and Lunatone was knocked out. Tristan threw his pokeball and it dinged almost immediately.

"Awesome. One down already. Thanks for the help Swampert. Return."

Tristan recalled his pokemon and sat down for a minute to analyze his newest capture.

"_**Lunatone, female. Level 30. Known attacks: Confusion, Rock Throw, Psywave, and Hypnosis."**_

"Well, you're pretty far along. I'm definitely glad you weren't at peak performance."

Tristan got up and turned around to go back down the waterfall. When he did though, there were two more Lunatone behind him. They did not look happy.

"Uh…hi Lunatone. I was just leaving so there's no need to be angry or anything…"

The Lunatone's eyes flashed red, and that is the last thing Tristan saw before things went to hell.

--

When Tristan opened his eyes again, it was daylight, and it was really bright- it hurt his eyes a lot at first.

"Oh wow. Stupid Lunatone. Probably used a Hypnosis on me. Oh shit! Gary's probably going crazy. I better get back to the campsite!"

Instead of climbing down, he decided to just jump off the side of the cliff and land in the water. The second he got in there though…

"AHHHH! CARVANHA!"

He quickly jumped out of the water started to swat the carnivorous pokemon off of him.

"Take that you little fuckers. Mew, I hate those fish."

After taking a minute to check himself for any wounds and slow his heart rate down, he found he had gotten out unscathed. He then began to again walk towards the campsite. But after only a minute, two figures dropped down in front of him.

"Adam, Evan!? What the hell are you two doing here?"

"Geez bro, aren't you happy to see us?"

"Well yeah, but I expected you two would be at the gym, not here!"

"We wanted to give you a surprise. Guess what we did? We just earned all eight badges to compete at the Ever Grande Conference!"

"….. you did WHAT?"

"We're going to be competing against you! How many badges do you have?"

"I have…two. How on earth did you two get all eight badges already? And what pokemon did you use? Neither of you have any pokemon other than your starters and that stupid Taillow of yours Adam."

"Oh we just used your pokemon and we flew around to each gym. Thanks for raising them so well."

Tristan stood there for w full minute, with a shell-shocked expression on his face. When he spoke next, a normal person would have begun cowering in fear at the pure venom.

"….you did what?" he said with a quiet fury.

Tristan was beginning to get angry. First he clenched his fists, and then began to shake, and finally he began to see red.

"Are you two imbeciles telling me you used _my_ pokemon that I raised, expending enormous amounts of effort and a lot of money to do so, to achieve something that I'm working hard to do, and has been a goal of mine for years? I'm going to kill you!"

"Sorry bro can't let that happen. Altaria, Flygon, take us home."

The two pokemon swooped down and picked the two up, then took off to the south.

"Damn it, you bastards get back here right now! Of course, I don't have a flying pokemon. I'm going to kill them. MOTHERFUCK!" he screamed.

Tristan was stewing in anger, and was literally stomping back towards the campsite now. After a few minutes, he sat down to try and sort everything out when his pokenav began to ring.

"Hello?" he asked monotonously.

"Tristan, sweetie, its mom."

"How did you get this number?"

"That's not important. I'm just letting you know that since Adam and Evan already got their badges, I'm letting them take over as gym leaders for a while. Your father and I are going to take a vacation to the Seafoam Islands on the new boat your father built."

"…Thanks for brightening up my day with that news, mom. Bye!"

Tristan hung up and threw the pokenav against a tree and let out a huge scream. This proved to be a mistake as hundreds of Beedrill began to buzz furiously.

"Oh great, the only pokemon I'm afraid of. Time to run!"

Tristan had been attacked by some Beedrill when he was very young, and had been afraid of them ever since, though he never acted afraid in the company of others. But his pokemon knew that if a Beedrill was attacking to give it their all, since they could sense his fear, and wanted to protect him. Tristan took off running.

"I'm going to need some pokemon help on this one." he said reaching down to grab a pokeball. Suddenly he realized that he had no pokemon on him. He began to feel that familiar feeling of fear in his chest grow exponentially.

"What the hell? Where are my pokemon?" he asked as a Beedrill stung him. "Fuck that hurt!" _I'm in big trouble now._

He continued to run to try and escape but the Beedrill were too fast. He could feel himself getting tired, but the adrenaline his fear had caused to pump through him was keeping him going. He finally tripped over a root and hit the ground. The Beedrill kept stinging him. He curled up into a ball and began to shake and cry.

"Please just go away, please go away, please go away." he repeated over and over as the Beedrill crawled all over him, still occasionally stinging him. It began to dawn on him that he was probably going to die a horrible painful death.

--

**So, thoughts? Leave a review!**


	12. Get me out of this Nightmare

**Thanks go out to srgeman and HeathDTS for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 12-**

Gary had gotten back to the campsite with some more wood for the fire. He saw Tristan wasn't back yet and glanced at his watch. Tristan had been gone for a while. He was just sitting down when a girl wandered into the campsite. A familiar looking girl…

"Hi Gary, where's Tristan?" Gabrielle said in a smug tone.

"Oh, um he's out looking for some Lunatone." he answered, slightly taken aback. "What exactly are you doing here? Don't you have a contest?"

"It's over, and I won. I'm on my way down to Rustboro for some business, and then I'm catching a plane ride over to Lavaridge to relax in those amazing baths they have."

"Sounds nice…"

"Yeah…"

They sat there for a bit in an awkward silence watching the flames dance.

"So…what kind of pokemon do you have? Gary asked.

"I have a Sceptile, Masquerain, Gardevoir, Torkoal, Milotic, and Absol."

"Wow, that's a lot of interesting pokemon. May I see your Milotic?"

"Sure I guess. Milotic, I need you." she said calling out the beautiful water type. Gary looked at it in awe. Suddenly, they heard a voice screaming. Both trainers stood up.

"Did you hear that scream? It sort of sounded like Tristan." Gabrielle said, recalling her pokemon.

"Let's go see."

Both hurried off in the direction of the scream. They ran for a minute then slowed down to try and hear if anyone was around.

"Tristan? Can you hear me?" Gary called.

Suddenly, Tristan ran past them, swinging his arms through the air wildly. The other two stood there stunned for a second, and then took off after him. They lost him for a minute until they came up on him in a clearing. He was curled up on the ground bleeding from several places. As they rushed to his side, they saw he was crying and muttering to himself "please go away, please go away."

Gary immediately looked into Tristan's eyes and so them completely out of focus. He called out his Umbreon and began looking around. Sure enough, he saw two Lunatone floating above them.

"The Lunatone are using Confusion on Tristan. He's seeing things that aren't there." Gary said. "If we don't stop the attack, he could hurt himself more."

"Well, I'd hate to see that happen. Go Absol."

"Let's go Umbreon."

--

Tristan was lying there when suddenly the Beedrill flew off. He began to look over his body to see the damage. He was a bit surprised that there were no marks!

"Well that's odd."

Suddenly, a Plusle and Minun walked up to him.

"Hi there little guys. Did you scare those Beedrill away?"

The two pokemon shook their heads, and then smiled. Suddenly, both started to mutate into hideous monsters. Tristan's mouth hung open watching the grotesque sight in front of him. He wanted to run, but found himself unable to move. The Plusle/Minun monsters started to charge up, then released a huge Thunderbolt onto Tristan. All he could do was scream.

--

"Absol use Bite."

"Umbreon use Quick Attack."

The two pokemon's attacks hit their marks as the Lunatone were concentrating solely on Tristan. Suddenly, Tristan began screaming like crazy. Both trainers immediately turned to see him shaking on the ground like he was being shocked.

"We have to stop them! Absol use Razor Wind." Gabrielle said in a bit of a panicked voice.

"Umbreon use Confuse Ray."

The Lunatone that Umbreon was attacking got hit and suddenly started to fly around in loops. Absol's was still attacking.

"Absol, finish that thing off with a Slash!"

The attack connected and the Lunatone dropped onto the ground unconscious. Tristan stopped screaming, and the two rushed over to him.

"He's bleeding pretty badly. Let's get him back to the campsite." Gary said.

"I'll take care of that." she said, calling out her Gardevoir. "Gardevoir use Psychic to carry Tristan with us."

The psychic pokemon picked Tristan up and led him behind Gary and Gabrielle back to the campsite.

"Stay here with him while I get some water." Gary said.

Gabrielle had Gardevoir lay Tristan down on his sleeping bag. She pulled out her bottle of water and a bandana from her bag and started to clean his wounds.

"What were thinking, idiot? You should have never gone out looking for psychic pokemon by yourself. That was really stupid. If you had gotten killed…" she said to his unconscious body. "Just be alright."

After five minutes, Gary was back, and the two of them were able to get Tristan bandaged up as well as they could.

--

Tristan woke up and it was daylight out. He sat up in his sleeping bag. He looked over his bandaged form.

"_These were from the Beedrill_" he thought. He then turned and saw Gary lying in his sleeping bag, then turned more and saw… _her._

"_Ah, so the torture continues. I take it she'll be the one causing me bodily harm now. Maybe I can escape without waking the slumbering beast."_

He quietly began to get up, but before he could get out of his sleeping bag, Gary's Umbreon, seeing that Tristan was awake, had already nudged her master awake and nodded her head toward Tristan. Gary looked over and saw Tristan attempting to stand, and promptly falling back down.

"Tristan! Jeez, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. These Beedrill attacked me after I threw my pokenav at them. Why was I so angry?" he asked, looking down in concentration. "Oh yeah, my brothers. I'M GONNA KILL THEM!" he shouted, waking Gabrielle up now.

"Chillar shut up! Incredible looks like this can't be bought you know. I need my sleep!"

"Well, you sure could fool me. And hey, take it easy, I got attacked by a Beedrill swarm."

"No you didn't, moron. Two Lunatone were using Confusion on you. Whatever you saw last night was an illusion."

"Well then where did all these injuries come from?"

"Well, we heard you screaming, then saw you running through the woods flailing your arms all over the place, so that's probably a good start. As for the rest, I have no idea, but there aren't even Beedrill in this area. Knowing you, you were probably bashing your head against a rock or something."

Tristan sat there for a minute in deep thought. "My head hurts." he said. Gabrielle and Gary just sighed.

--

After getting a few more hours of sleep, Tristan was ready to get up and move around. Finally being able to get a good look at his body, he found his legs and torso were practically one big bruise, and he had mild to moderate sized cuts all over his hands, arms, and face. He figured he must have jumped off that hill he was on and rolled down over all the rocks, accounting for the bruises. The trees and bushes were probably the source of his cuts. Overall, he felt like crap.

"I think we should stay here another night Gary. I feel terrible." Tristan said.

"That's fine with me. But if you go out and try and get a Lunatone or Solrock again, I'm going with you."

"Oh I forgot-I did catch a Lunatone!" Tristan exclaimed.

"Do you think it will be as angry as those other two?" Gabrielle asked.

"Only one way to find out." he said reaching for the pokeball.

"Umbreon, be ready." Gary said as Umbreon tensed up.

Tristan released the Lunatone. It didn't react angrily at all. It looked Tristan over, then had a look of shame come across its face.

"_Sorry for my friends. I hope you that you are alright. I will not hurt you." _Tristan heard in his head.

"I think we're going to be fine guys." Tristan said. He called out his other pokemon and introduced them to Lunatone. While they got acquainted, Tristan turned to Gabrielle.

"So, not to be blunt or anything, but what the hell are you even doing here?"

"Well, I see those Lunatone didn't Confusion you into having some tact. I did happen to help save your life last night."

"Really? Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"Yeah well start believing. Even though you are completely unworthy of my time, I suppose you're just too pitiful to let die. It would be like ignoring an injured little Pichu. Pathetic, but too pitiful looking not to help. But don't expect too many handouts like that. I've already told Gary, I won my contest so I'm heading to Rustboro, then to Lavaridge."

"You're going to Lavaridge? Great." he muttered.

"What, you gotta problem with that?"

"No, of course not."

"Hmph. So what's up with that necklace you're wearing? I like it."

"It's Kyogre's symbol, and my mom gave it to me for luck."

"That's nice. I think I remember her from the Silver Conference. Blond hair?"

"That's probably her."

"She seemed nice. She'd probably like my mom."

"She's the one that I thought was your older sister wasn't it?"

"Yes. She's spoken glowingly of you ever since. Saying you were such a gentleman. Of course I know better, but she won't take my word for it."

"Oh ha-ha. Just because you don't like me doesn't mean other women can't see me for my awesome self."

The two went on like that for some time. Gary just sat and watched in amusement.

--

The next day, Gabrielle left after breakfast.

"Well, it's been real, but I gotta get back to sane people before I become as crazy as you are."

"Well, we wouldn't want that." Tristan said sarcastically. "But, I just want to say thanks, you know, for helping me, and being, um, less bitchy than usual to me and stuff."

"You're welcome. Just try to stop doing dumb stuff."

"Whatever."

"Bye Gary, see ya Tristan."

The two boys went back to the campsite, while Gabrielle walked off with a smile.

--

**Be on the lookout for my new story this week. I think I'm gonna need some OC's...**

**Anyways, review if you please.**


	13. The Bonds of Friendship

**Thanks to srgeman and HeathDTS for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 13-**

After Gabrielle left, Tristan was a bit surprised that he didn't feel the need for his anti-depressants. He did however feel the need to soak his aching body in the cool water near the falls. He told Gary that he was going to the river to soak. Gary responded by making Tristan not only take his pokemon with him, but also Gary's Poochyena just to be sure he had the help of a dark type, in case he ran into any angry Solrock. Tristan agreed since he didn't feel like arguing.

After getting to the river, he let all of his pokemon out and let them play in the river as well. Swampert naturally was ecstatic to be in the water, and was more than ready to start a huge water fight before Tristan told him that if one drop of water got on himself or on Lunatone or Nincada, it would be extremely detrimental to his opportunity to battle at the Lavaridge gym. Swampert suddenly lost interest in the water fight. As Tristan sat in the water, letting the coolness soothe his aching muscles, he thought about his strategy for battling Mr. Moore. Tristan very much respected the man and his abilities, so he knew it would take an awesome strategy to win…

After a couple hours of relaxing, Tristan decided to return to the camp. He was pretty hungry, so he got back ready to make lunch. When he got there, Gary was not at the camp, but Tristan went ahead and made lunch for them both anyway. Right after Tristan had finished eating, Gary returned with a huge smile on his face.

"Guess what I just did." Gary said, holding up a pokeball.

"Don't tell me you caught a Solrock."

"No, I don't want a Solrock. I caught a… well let me just show you."

He pulled out a pokeball and released the pokemon inside. What materialized was a pokemon Tristan was quite familiar with.

"You caught a Bagon!" he exclaimed. "That's awesome. Do you realize how powerful Salamence is? That's an excellent catch!"

"I know. I was just wandering around and I came across it. I knew I had to have it."

Gary ate his lunch while he let Bagon interact with the other pokemon. Meanwhile, Tristan packed up all of the stuff so they could leave.

"Why are you packing up? You still have to catch a Solrock."

"I know, but after the other night, my fire to catch another psychic pokemon has dimmed a bit. I'll come back another time to get my Solrock."

"So then we're going to Lavaridge?"

"We're going to Lavaridge."

Gary quickly finished eating and recalled his pokemon. The two then set off down route 114 towards Fallarbor Town.

--

Gary and Tristan spent one more night on the road before reaching Fallarbor Town. Along the way, they ran into a flock of Swablu and Tristan made sure to catch one. Once they got to the town, they were quite happy to be able to stay at a Pokemon Center again. Tristan got the rooms while Gary decided to call his grandfather with an update. Tristan then got a check up by Nurse Joy, who scolded Tristan harshly for being so careless to get hurt like that. After getting bandaged up and given some pain killers, Tristan met up with Gary for dinner, and then they headed to their rooms for a good night's sleep.

The next day, Tristan woke up feeling the best he had since lying on that beach in Dewford more than a week ago. The pain meds were most likely the reason, but nonetheless Tristan was in a good mood as he ate his breakfast. Gary came down a few minutes later looking happy as well. On the TV was footage of a recent Pokemon contest showing Gabrielle winning. Even seeing that same smug smile he saw when he lost in Johto didn't get Tristan down

"So what's the plan on getting to Lavaridge?" Gary asked. "Are we going over Mt. Chimney or around it?"

"Neither. We're walking on a little shortcut I've heard of. It's a straight shot from here in town to Lavaridge. Instead of a weeklong hike over a mountain, it's a three day hike through nice level forest." Tristan replied.

"I like the sound of that!" Gary said trusting in Tristan's knowledge of the region.

After breakfast, the two headed out, Tristan holding up his pokenav to get a heading, and made their way into the woods.

--

Six days later, Gary was visibly upset. He was dirty, his clothes had tears in them, and the scowl on his face was scaring away wild pokemon.

"Instead of weeklong trip over a mountain, it's a three day hike through nice level forest!" Gary said. "Just a nice little shortcut. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED, TRISTAN?"

"Well, I certainly didn't think the forest would be this thick or I wouldn't have come this way, Gary."

"Do you even know where we are?"

"We haven't gone too sideways or anything so we should still be headed toward Lavaridge. So when I start getting a signal again, I'll know we're close."

"You mean to tell me you don't have a signal on your pokenav? When were you going to let me in on that?"

"It was on a need to know basis. You didn't need to know that or you would be angrier than you have been."

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I'D BE ANGRY! When we get out of here, I'm going to throw you into Mt. Chimney myself."

"Bring it, pussy."

Gary snapped and punched Tristan right in the stomach. Tristan responded by full out tackling Gary right over a ledge and down a hill. The two rolled down, still trying to throw punches, for a good minute. Finally they stopped. They were on a road, but they were too dizzy to realize it yet. They'd had so little food over the past couple of days, there wasn't even enough in their stomachs to throw up, but they almost did anyway.

After sitting down and getting their bearings, Tristan pulled up his pokenav. It showed that they were a half a mile to the west of Lavaridge. The two took one look at each other and broke out laughing. They looked terrible. Both had cuts, bruises, and dirt all over, Tristan had had his shirt ripped almost completely off of him, Gary had sticks and leaves all over his large hair-do, and both looked like they hadn't showered in a month. Neither realized that they looked just as bad as the other; they thought each other had taken all the damage. They walked peacefully the rest of the way to Lavaridge, ignoring the shocked looks of the people they passed.

They made their first order of business checking into the Pokemon Center. Nurse Joy insisted on treating their wounds, as well as healing their pokemon. Gary got his injuries tended to first, so Tristan put their bags in their rooms and sent an e-mail to his family, figuring it would be in his best interest that his mom not see him in his current condition. After Gary was treated, Tristan went in and Gary went and made a couple of phone calls. After Tristan came out, they went and ate a decent meal for the first time in a week, devouring a large amount of food.

"Gary, I'm really sorry about the shortcut, and then for just about everything afterwards." Tristan said.

"Ah it's alright man. I know you had the best intentions." he replied.

"So was the fighting necessary earlier?"

"Well, just because you had good intentions doesn't mean you didn't deserve to be taught a lesson about taking poor shortcuts. But I'm sorry that it got out of hand. I called and got us a session at one of the local hot springs to help us feel better."

"Wow, thanks Gary!"

--

After having an early dinner, the two went over to the Lavaridge mall to buy some replacement clothes (each buying almost the exact outfits they had before), then headed over to the hot spring. The front office was kind of small, but the pool with the spring was huge. The two changed and then got in. The soreness of their muscles seemed to disappear on the spot. They finally had a chance to talk about the upcoming gym battle.

"So you've known the past two gym leaders in some way, what's your connection to the Lavaridge leader?" Gary asked.

"Well, surprisingly I don't have a connection to Mr. Moore, but he is extremely well respected in the whole region for his skills. I heard that he was offered to be one of the Hoenn Elite 4 once, but he declined." Tristan said.

"So no cake-walk?"

"Nope. But on the plus side, well for me anyway, is that his granddaughter Flannery and I are good friends. We're about the same age and we've known each other for years. Someday we'll probably both be gym leaders which is pretty cool."

"Is she hot?"

"Yeah I'd say so. She got this crazy red hair and she's got a decent body. I haven't seen her in a few years, so she might have gone either way with age. I'm hoping she went towards hotter."

"You mean kind of like that girl over there?" Gary asked pointing to the deck where people can lounge near the water.

"Yeah, it might be her. HEY FLANNERY!" Tristan yelled. The girl turned her head towards them. She squinted at them, then got a huge grin and jumped in the water.

"Tristan, is that you?" she asked as she made her way towards them.

"Yeah, what's up?" he asked as she finally got there. She then pulled him into a big hug.

"Oh wow, I haven't seen you in ages! You look good." she said, eying him all over.

"Thanks, you too. So what's up? Oh wait, first let me introduce you to my friend Gary."

"Hi Gary, I'm Flannery. So yeah, I've been really busy lately. My granddad was making me do all these battles and stuff and teaching me all these lessons about what it takes to be a good gym leader. It's kind of a drag, but I've been getting really strong. So, why are you out here in Lavaridge?"

"I'm finally getting around to travelling Hoenn to compete at the Ever Grande Conference."

"No way! So I guess you're going for a Heat badge?"

"You got it!" Tristan exclaimed, noticing that Flannery had been moving closer and closer to him until she was now right up next to him. "So anyway, what pokemon do you have now?"

"I've still got Mag and Meg, my Slugma. And I got a Torkoal a few months ago. You still got all those dual-types?"

"You bet! I'm getting caught up with the Hoenn ones. I've got a Nincada, Lunatone, and Swablu."

"Oh you're so cute when you get all excited about those dual-types."

"You should have seen his encounter with the Lunatone." Gary chimed in. "He got Confusioned into jumping off a cliff, running through the woods, thinking he was getting stung by Beedrill, and thinking he was getting attacked by a Plusle/ Minun monster thing."

"Oh Tristan, is that what gave you all these scratches all over you?" she asked

"Umm, somewhat."

The three talked for a while before Flannery had to go back to the gym. Before she left, she insisted that Tristan get a massage from her when they visited the gym tomorrow. She left, giving Gary a quick hug and giving Tristan a big hug and peck on the cheek. After she was gone, Gary immediately turned to Tristan.

"What was that?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"She was all over you. She has the hots for you big time."

"No way, she's just being affectionate since she hasn't seen me in a while."

"Oh, it's Ash all over again." Gary muttered to himself.

"What?" Tristan asked.

"Nothing. I just think she has a crush on you. We'll see tomorrow."

--

**A/N- You know what I want- just press the review button!**


	14. She's a Gym Leader Now?

**A big thanks to srgeman, HeathDTS, and ZenNoMai for the reviews!  
**

**--**

**Chapter 14-**

Gary and Tristan spent the night at the Pokemon Center getting themselves ready for their battle at the Lavaridge gym. Both had selected their teams the night before and gotten a good sleep after their trip to the hot springs. They woke up at nine and got breakfast.

"So are you ready to get that massage, Tristan?" Gary asked with at smirk.

"I don't know what it is with you thinking she's got a crush on me. We're just friends." Tristan insisted.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm not going to."

"Fine." Gary said looking back at his breakfast. "I wonder if she'll wind up wanting to come with us around Hoenn…"

"For the love of Mew, if you don't shut up about this I'm gonna get my Lunatone to use Confusion on you."

"What? I wasn't insinuating anything." Gary said with an innocent look.

"Whatever." Tristan said, now eating with a noticeable frown. "By the way, I want to put off having my gym battle with Mr. Moore until later, like around sunset. I'm planning on using Lunatone and since we are near the full moon, it should help. Any advantage I can get against him will be useful."

"Okay. Besides, that will give you all day to spend with your girlfriend."

At this point Gary got a muffin thrown in his face and Tristan stormed off. Gary just laughed to himself.

--

The two spent the day training and getting ready for their battles. They left for the gym in the middle of the afternoon. Gary assumed this was because Tristan wanted his massage.

Tristan was fairly anxious as they reached the gym. Not only did he have Flannery to worry about, but he was worried about the upcoming battle with Mr. Moore as well. He knew this might be his toughest gym battle. When they walked in, they were greeted by quite a surprise. Flannery was having a battle with someone.

The two went into the stands and watched. The kid looked to be a bit younger than them- maybe fourteen or so. He had longish black hair, and to their surprise what looked like gold colored eyes. He was using an Eevee against Flannery's Torkoal.

"C'mon buddy, we can do this- use Tackle." he said.

"Iron Defense, Torkoal. Then Overheat."

The diminutive Eevee had nothing for the toughness of Torkoal's shell, and definitely had nothing for the stream of white hot flame that came from said turtle's mouth. Eevee was out.

"The battle is over. The gym leader Flannery is the winner."

"Woah, did that guy just say Flannery is the gym leader?" Tristan asked.

"Let's go find out." Gary replied as they made their way down to the field. When they got down there, Flannery was talking to the kid.

"You should really try and catch another type, Blake. You have a great Charmander and Eevee though."

"Maybe you could help me train my Charmander sometime- you definitely fire me up." he said to her.

"Oh you are a cutie!" she said. "How will I be able to cool you back down?" she said while playing with one of the strings on his black hoodie.

"Uh, um, yeah…" he stammered nervously. "Um, I'll be back to challenge you again!" he said, dashing off. Meanwhile, Flannery had spotted Tristan and Gary and bounded up to them.

"Hey guys, I was wondering when you'd get here. Guess what? My grandfather said that I can do actual gym battles today! You're going to be battling me for a badge- I've been waiting all day for this!"

"Wow." Tristan said not believing his luck. "That's really cool. I can't wait to do this. But I think Gary really wanted to do his battle right now." Tristan said pushing Gary forward.

"Great, come on Gary."

Flannery grabbed an extremely surprised looking Gary and practically dragged him onto the field while Tristan walked to the sidelines savoring his revenge. The judge stepped back up to the podium.

"This will be a three on three pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Gary from, uh, where are you from kid?"

"Pallet Town." Gary grumbled.

"Right, Pallet Town, will be battling the gym leader, Flannery, for a Heat badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Trainers ready?"

"Ready." they said.

"Begin!"

"Go Mag."

"Go Bagon."

The two pokemon materialized in the battlefield ready for work.

"Okay Mag, use Sunny Day."

"Use Focus Energy Bagon."

The Slugma glowed and the sun instantly got brighter, while Bagon glowed, raising its attack stats.

"Now Mag, use Smog."

A noxious cloud of smoke made its way toward Bagon. The dragon type coughed a bit but seemed unaffected.

"Bagon use Headbutt."

"Oh, um, try and dodge."

Flannery's hesitation cost her as Bagon wound up hitting Slugma before it had a chance to dodge.

"That's okay Mag, use Overheat."

"Bagon look out!"

Bagon mustered all of its speed and managed to dodge the powerful attack.

"Now use Bite."

Bagon leapt over and bit down on Slugma. Tristan silently wondered how it could stand biting a living piece of lava, but then again Bagon did ram into things with their heads a lot. Maybe they just don't feel pain in their heads. Regardless, the bite did damage.

"Okay, Mag use Overheat again."

Even with the effects of Sunny Day, the fire attack did not deal much damage to the fire-resistant Bagon.

"Another Headbutt Bagon."

The attack again connected and sent the Slugma into the air.

"Once more."

The final Headbutt did Mag in as the pokemon collapsed near the side of the field.

"Mag is unable to battle, Bagon wins."

"Mag return. You did well. Go Meg!"

Another Slugma materialized on the field.

"Bagon return. Go Pelipper."

--

Tristan was ready to see the next battle when someone sat down next to him. It was Mr. Moore who was followed by, to Tristan's disbelief, Gabrielle.

"Mr. Moore, I am honored to be in your presence." Tristan said.

"Thank you son. I know you've met Gabrielle here."

"Mm-hmm." he muttered. "I just wonder why she would be here."

"I wanted to talk about some things with Mr. Moore. You know, like how to handle the stress of being a champion and all. He's very wise."

"Yes he is. I admire him greatly."

"Thank you Tristan. How are your mother and father?"

"They are doing well sir. I imagine you saw her at the big meeting you all had at Ever Grande?"

"Yes, she told me you would be covering for her at the gym. How did you like it?"

"I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot."

"Being a gym leader is a lot of work. What did you learn?"

"Well, there is so much of the job that is not battling. There's the paperwork, taking care of the gym, making sure the pokemon are always ready to go. It's a big job."

"Yes it is. I haven't told Flannery yet, but I'm planning to let her take over for me full time very soon. I hope she can handle it."

"She's going to be a gym leader? Wow."

"Does it surprise you?"

"No, I guess I'm a little jealous actually. My mom is probably going to stay as the gym leader for a long time to come."

"Well you never know. Maybe she will see how strong you are and turn it over sooner than you think."

"Yeah, maybe…"

Tristan turned his attention back to the match, where he saw Gary's Bagon take out Flannery's Torkoal. The battle was over. He also watched as Bagon evolved into a Shellgon and smiled as Gary walked over to check out his newly evolved pokemon along with Flannery. He decided to head down to the field, and was followed by the other two.

--

"Tristan how did you like the battle?" Flannery asked.

"It was great!" Tristan said with well practiced fake enthusiasm.

"Oh I just can't wait to have our battle." she said.

"Actually Flannery, that won't be happening." Mr. Moore said. "If you don't mind Tristan, I would like to be the one you battle for the badge."

"Wow, sure Mr. Moore. I was hoping to get to battle you."

"Excellent. Why don't you three head up to the stands while we do this?" he said to Gabrielle, Gary, and Flannery.

"Okay. Good luck Tristan- I'll be rooting for you!" she said with a wink.

Gabrielle was looking at Flannery with narrowed eyes, but only Gary noticed. The three went into the stands while Tristan took his place on the field. Mr. Moore went over to the judge and talked to him for a minute and then turned to Tristan.

"Tristan, I've decided to make this a one on one battle. I'll give you a minute to decide which of your pokemon to use."

"Okay."

_This changes things. I know all his pokemon are really strong. I'm going to have to go with the one pokemon I have that will be able to stay strong against whatever he has._

"I'm ready."

"This will be a one on one pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Tristan from Azure Town, will be battling the gym leader Mr. Moore for a Heat badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Are you ready?"

"Ready." they said, pokeballs in hand.

"Begin."

**--**

**A/N-Let me say another thank you to HeathDTS for the idea of Blake. Anyways, leave some reviews!**


	15. Dueling a Legend

**A big thanks to HeathDTS and srgeman for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 15-**

"Go Typhlosion." Mr. Moore said.

"Go Swampert." said Tristan.

The two pokemon materialized onto the field ready for battle. Tristan had heard many tales of Mr. Moore's legendary Typhlosion, and knew he would have to exploit Swampert's water and ground type advantages to their full potential over the pure fire type.

"Swampert, start off with your Water Gun."

"Counter with your Flamethrower Typhlosion."

The streams of fire and water met in the center of the field and created a huge amount of steam.

"Swampert, wait for Typhlosion."

"Typhlosion use Flame Wheel."

Typhlosion started to roll towards Swampert completely engulfed in flames.

"Now use Earthquake Swampert."

Swampert pounded the ground, causing it to shake and crack with immense force. Typhlosion was thrown off balance and not only did its attack fail, it took considerable damage as well.

"Well done Tristan, but don't think we're out yet. Use Swift."

"Counter with Water Gun."

The water managed to knock out most of the damage inducing stars from the Swift attack.

"Swampert use Muddy Water."

"Typhlosion dodge it."

Typhlosion did its best to dodge, and used its speed advantage over Swampert to completely miss the attack.

"Now counter that with your Tackle attack."

By now Typhlosion was behind Swampert and managed to land the attack dead on.

"Swampert use Take Down while it's close."

Typhlosion turned around to face Swampert and was met with a wall of blue smashing into it.

"Don't take that from them Typhlosion, use your Flamethrower again."

"Dodge that and get ready to engage Swampert."

Swampert tried to avoid the flames but was hit a bit by the fire. However, it got closer and closer to Typhlosion with each dodge and parry.

"Now Muddy Water again!"

This time the attack did not miss and Typhlosion took a large amount of damage from the powerful attack. However, it still was not fainted.

"Give them your Flame Wheel again."

The Typhlosion rolled up into a rolling ball of fire again and hit Swampert in the side, sending it flying.

--

Meanwhile up in the stands…

"Come on Tristan, you can do it! You're the best!" Flannery yelled. Gabrielle was looking at her with narrowed eyes still, something that did not escape Gary's notice, but he didn't say anything. He was enthralled with the battle between the two titans. He focused back on what was happening below.

--

"Come on Swampert, you can do this. Water Gun them."

"Flamethrower to counter."

The two streams met again, only this time, the Water Gun was able to overpower the Flamethrower and hit Typhlosion. Tristan knew that while Typhlosion had good speed, it had lower attack and defense stats, and was able to start taking advantage of that now that Typhlosion was weak.

"Now Earthquake while it's down."

Again the gym trembled under Swampert's powerful Earthquake attack and again Typhlosion took a lot of damage. But when the attack was done, Typhlosion yet again got up.

"Tackle, Typhlosion."

"Take Down, Swampert."

The two pokemon took off running at each other and met with a huge amount of force in the middle of the battle field, sending up a huge cloud of dust. When the dust settled, both pokemon were standing looking eye to eye. Then Typhlosion started sinking to the ground and hit with a thud, knocked out.

"The winner of the battle is Swampert. The match goes to Tristan." the judge announced.

"Alright!" Tristan yelled jumping into the air. He ran over to hug his Swampert and celebrate, while Mr. Moore recalled his fainted pokemon and headed over to Tristan.

"Excellent battling Tristan. I must say I had little hope for victory going against a well-trained and strong Swampert such as yours. The Heat badge is yours." he said handing the badge to him.

"Thank you so much Mr. Moore. I'm so glad to have been able to battle you for a gym badge. I knew going against you would be a big test of my strength."

"Well you definitely passed."

Flannery and Gary came up to the two.

"Tristan that was amazing- your Swampert is so strong! I wish I could have been the one to battle you." she said, earning a cry of happiness from said Swampert.

"Thanks Flannery." Tristan replied. But was without the enthusiasm he usually had with her. Every time he looked at her now he felt a surge of jealousy towards her.

"I know, let's get something to eat!" she said. The three teens headed out to a local burger place and ate. It was mostly idle chit-chat. Tristan really wasn't paying that much attention. He couldn't get his mind off the fact that his friend was achieving her goal of gym leader before him. After dinner, they got ready to part ways.

"So where are you headed now?" Flannery asked.

"Mauville to battle Wattson." Tristan replied.

"Good luck to both of you. You should call me more often!" she pouted.

"I'll give you an update from time to time." Tristan said.

"Yeah, I know what that means. Every three months if I'm lucky." she said. Tristan just shrugged his shoulders. After saying their goodbyes and Flannery giving him another peck on the cheek, the boys headed for the Pokemon Center while Flannery headed for the gym. After getting to the center, the two gave Nurse Joy their tired pokemon to get recharged. Gary headed up to room, Tristan to the phone. He disabled the video monitor so no one could see who he was calling. He dialed the number and after three rings it picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi mom, it's Tristan."

"Hi honey! How are you? Where are you?"

"I'm in Lavaridge. I just got my third badge."

"Really, that's great! Catch any new pokemon?"

"I've caught a Lunatone and a Swablu as of late."

"Oh wow, I love Altaria, they're so graceful. Did you see your friend Flannery?"

"Yes I did. I found out something very interesting from her. Mr. Moore is stepping down as gym leader and she is taking his place."

"Is that so? I know he was getting up there in years. Well that's great for Flannery- you must be so happy."

"Yeah, I'm thrilled for her."

"And just think, someday you'll both be gym leaders together."

"Someday..."

"Something wrong dear?"

"Nope. Uh, Nurse Joy is calling me to give me back my pokemon. I've got to go. Bye mom."

"Bye Tristan!"

He hung up the phone. His mom had a knack sometimes for saying the wrong thing and not help make him feel any better. Someday was not a good word to use. Flannery could have twenty years on him before he became a gym leader. The thought of that just upset him further. He walked over to Nurse Joy and took back his Swampert, then went to his room and brooded for the rest of the night.

--

Tristan was happy to be getting out of Lavaridge to take his mind off the unpleasant fact that he might not be a gym leader anytime soon. Gary and him were having breakfast and preparing to head south to Mauville.

"So any special shortcuts this time or can we stick to the actual road?" Gary asked.

"It's a straight shot down to Mauville on the road." Tristan replied.

"Good. I don't want to have to buy new clothes every time we go to a new city."

"No need to worry about that. All we'll be doing is heading east on the Fiery Path along route 112 and then south through the desert along 111. So as long as they're not burned off your body, you should be fine."

"Oh boy, sounds fun. Maybe the forest wasn't that bad."

"Just make sure you bring plenty of water."

"No kidding."

And after packing up their stuff, the duo headed out to the next challenge.

--

**Review, review, review!**


	16. Sugar and Spice? Yeah Right

**Thanks to srgeman and pikachuhunter1 for the reviews!**

**--**

**Chapter 16-**

Walking through a valley known for its heat is a miserable experience unique to its own. Sure the heat is cool to experience at first, but the overwhelming misery from prolonged exposure to that heat tires you out so fast that every step you take feels like it's the hardest thing you've ever done. This is where Tristan and Gary find themselves as they trek along the Fiery Path to get to Mauville. Both had removed their shirts and tied them around their heads like turbans to help keep their sweat of their faces.

"Tristan, why is this place so hot?" Gary asked.

"Hot springs I think." Tristan panted in reply.

"Remember how nice those springs felt in Lavaridge?"

"I'm trying not to think about anything hot right now."

"When is the sun going down?"

"In a few hours. Okay this is crazy." Tristan said coming to a stop. "Swampert, come out." he said throwing his pokeball. Swampert appeared and was ready for a battle. Seeing no opponent he turned to Tristan.

"Swampert, use your Water Gun on me." Tristan commanded.

Swampert looked understandably confused by this order and gave Tristan an "are you sure?" look. Tristan nodded, and Swampert engulfed him in water.

"Wow that felt great." Tristan said, now dripping wet.

"Do me too!" Gary said. Swampert unloaded a Water Gun on Gary as well.

"You're right, that's much better!" Gary said. Tristan returned his Swampert and they continued on. After about an hour, Tristan was starting to feel quite uncomfortable again. This time they both got Water Gunned by Gary's Pelipper. Finally about an hour before sunset they decided to settle down and camp for the night. Tristan consulted the pokenav and found that they were about two thirds of the way to Route 111. As they ate dinner, the sun went below the horizon and night was in full effect.

"That heat feels pretty nice now." Tristan commented.

"Yeah, tomorrow night isn't going to feel that warm when we're in the desert." Gary said.

"I've heard some bad stories from people in the desert. Apparently the Cacturne like to mess with people out there. We should be extra careful. I should have brought my Cacturne along with us." Tristan said.

"Don't worry; we're too smart for a bunch of Cacturne." Gary said.

--

It only took the two a couple of hours the next day to reach the junction that marked Route 111. They turned south and began the desert leg of their trip. Tristan was upset that he was getting no chance to train his pokemon during the journey to Mauville, but he knew it would be pointless for them to do any more work than absolutely necessary in this heat.

The desert was more interesting than the Fiery path- the sand that stretched around for what seemed like miles, and the cactus patches that were all over the place. Then the mid-day heat kicked in and those items novelty wore off quite quickly, replaced by misery once again from the heat. Before too long it was off with the shirts and back to hourly doses of Water Guns from Swampert and Pelipper. The were talking very little- trying to just think cool thoughts and get through this misery and to a nice bath in a tub full of ice cubes. A little after lunch, Tristan started to see something, strange. He could not help but feel he was being followed. Every time he looked over his shoulder he saw what seemed to be the same cactus formation. He shook it off the first couple times, but after the fifth look, he started to get a little freaked out.

"Gary, I think we're being followed." he said

"It's probably just a mirage." Gary replied.

"Oh. Yeah that's probably it."

They kept on walking, and Tristan decided to ignore the cactus. That was unfortunate, because if had continued monitoring those cactus, he would have seen them getting closer and closer as they went on, and would have eventually noticed that not only were there cacti behind them following them along, but a few on both sides of them as well. Finally, a patch of about five cacti appeared in front of them. The two stopped for a Water Gun break a few feet away from the cacti. After dousing the two with water, Swampert suddenly looked up at all the cacti surrounding them. He got into a defensive pose.

"What's wrong Swampert?" Tristan said looking around and seeing the cacti from earlier only about twenty feet away. He looked further around and so there were a lot of cacti around.

"Uh… I don't think that was a mirage from earlier, Gary."

"Huh?" Gary asked looking around. "Oh. Do you think it's Cacturne?"

"Let's see." Tristan said pulling out his old pokedex. He held it up towards one of the cacti.

"NO DATA" the pokedex chimed out.

"That's odd." he said. "What the heck are these things?"

Suddenly, a female voice cried out. "Get them!"

The cacti started pulling off their tops and revealing the torsos and heads of a bunch of teenage girls. Two grabbed Gary, two grabbed Tristan, and one blew a bunch of powder at Swampert that knocked the pokemon out.

"What did you do to my Swampert?" Tristan asked angrily.

"Relax, its just Sleep Powder. Now then…" she said as she looked over both Gary and Tristan. She then pulled out a magazine and looked through the pages. She finally got to the one she was looking for, and then let out a small squeal.

"It's them!" she said. The girls all started giggling and squealing like the first one.

"Uh, what the hell is going on here?" Gary asked.

"My name is Nikki, and I'm the president of the FGH, the Fan Girls of Hoenn."

Fear gripped the hearts of Tristan and Gary. _Fan girls._

"We had heard that you two were travelling around Hoenn together, and we knew we had to have a chance to see you. We used one of our oldest tricks. We wait in the desert for boys to come along and get all hot and sweaty. Then off come the shirts, then they douse themselves with water. Oh, it's delicious." she said with a dreamy smile on her face. "We got a tip from our source in Lavaridge that you two were heading this way, so we waited and sure enough, you gave us the show we were waiting for." she said looking at the two of them, shirtless and dripping wet.

Gary and Tristan were both very worried now. They knew that fan girls were unpredictable, lust-filled, and hormone-driven nightmares for any guy. What lengths would they have to go through to get their freedom back?

"What do you want from us?" Tristan asked trying to keep the fear from his voice.

"The first thing we want is…pictures!" Nikki said.

"That doesn't seem too bad." Gary whispered to Tristan.

"Of you two in your underwear!" Nikki said as the girls started squealing again.

"Ooookay, this is getting bad." Tristan said. Unfortunately the girls had them pinned down and just ripped both their pants off anyway. And they took both of their pokemon hostage to be sure the demands were met. After taking pictures of them in various poses, Nikki had the girls get pictures of themselves kissing both guys. Finally the girls had the boys autograph their magazines with their pictures in them. After all that, the girls let them put their clothes back on.

"Can we have our pokemon back as well?" Tristan asked after putting his shirt back on.

"We have one more thing we need you guys to do." she said as the rest of the group began giggling evilly.

"This can't be good." Gary whispered.

"You see, while most of us are just ordinary fan girls, a couple of the girls in the group had a special request…" she started.

"I know where this is going and the answer is no way." Gary said.

"What's it going to be?" Tristan asked.

"There's only one type of fan girl worse than ordinary fan girls- _yaoi fan girls_." he answered grimly looking at Nikki with narrowed eyes. Tristan gasped.

"You wouldn't!" he said looking at Nikki.

"I would, since I'm one of them!" she said, laughing loudly. "Now kiss each other on the lips, or you'll never see your pokemon again."

Gary and Tristan looked at each other hesitantly then back at Nikki.

"Can't we do anything else besides that?" Gary asked.

"I could always have you kiss each other naked…" she said.

"Dear lord are you out of your mind?" Tristan asked. "This is insanity, now give me back my pokemon." he said, advancing towards her.

"Girls!" she called out. Immediately Tristan was restrained by three girls. "The only way your getting out of this is to kiss Gary on the lips and let us take a picture. I promise it will only be used for fulfilling wild fan girl fantasies, and will not be given to any magazines or websites or whatever." she said.

"Promise?" Tristan and Gary asked.

"I swear." she said.

Tristan and Gary looked at each other again. Both nodded their heads in resignation. The girls released Tristan, and waited expectantly. They stood in front of each other, closed their eyes, and moved in….

--

Neither Gary nor Tristan talked to or even looked at each other after they got their pokemon back and the fan girls ran off into the desert. They had walked another mile or two before stopping and setting up camp for the night. Both had gone about their tasks acting like nothing was wrong. Finally after they were done eating, Gary spoke up.

"Let's pretend like today never happened, and erase it from our memories and never speak of it again." he said.

"Agreed." Tristan replied.

The two slept fitfully that night, plagued by nightmares of the dreaded fan girls. Neither wanted to see another one for as long as they lived.

--

**A/N- Wow, this puts me over 30,000 words. That's crazy. Went for a little humor in this chapter. Reveiw and tell me what you thought.**


	17. Training Day

**Thanks to pikachuhunter1, Lyokoluva, WildCroconaw, Blue Bongo, and srgeman for reviewing!**

**--  
**

**Chapter 17-**

Gary and Tristan were exhausted by the time Mauville City finally came into view towards the middle of the afternoon. The two wearily trudged into the city, then right through the city, and walked straight to the ocean. The two removed their shirts and continued walking right into the water. The seawater felt good- it was cold. The walk through hell, which for some reason was written on maps as Route's 111 and 112 had left them slightly delirious, and had also given them a healthy hatred for the heat. After spending an hour just relaxing in the water, they finally got their act together and went to the nearest Pokemon Center to get their rooms and their pokemon healed. While Nurse Joy was doing her thing, the two sat down and ate the first decent meal they'd had in a few days. It had felt like an eternity to the two teens. They ate heartily, and then headed out to the Pokemart for some fresh supplies. Each got what they needed more of- pokemon food, potions, and whatnot. Tristan made sure they both got some Paralyze Heals since he knew what was coming in the gym battles. After heading back to the Center, they got their pokemon back and promptly fell asleep.

--

Waking up the next morning, Tristan felt really energized. He badly wanted to get in some good hard training with his pokemon team to get them ready for the gym battles with Wattson. He even woke up before Gary did! Tristan's enthusiasm got Gary excited about doing some training as well. After they ate breakfast, Tristan headed over to the phone to make a quick change to his lineup, and then they headed to the training field behind the center and called out their teams.

"Alright team, line up!" Tristan called. His Starmie, Nincada, Lunatone, Swablu, and reacquired Gligar got into a line in front of him like soldiers. "Listen up troops. We've been slacking the past few days on training. Most of that is the fault of the hot weather in the desert, the other part could be the borderline sexual assault that occurred, but nonetheless, we've got to get back in shape if we're going to beat Wattson!" he exclaimed. His pokemon shouted in agreement. "Let's start with some drills…"

Meanwhile on the other side of the field, Gary was getting his pokemon ready for some training.

"Okay Dustox and Pelipper, flying drills. Umbreon, Poochyena, and Shellgon, running and agility drills."

The two flying types took off and started to fly in synchronized patterns, while the land based trio started running for a bit, then doing agility exercises, then more running.

Back where Tristan was, after spending a half hour on warm-up drills, he was now having each of his five pokemon practice attacks. For Starmie, he had targets set up for Bubblebeam and Hydro Pump attack precision practice. For Nincada he had a block of wood set up for practicing Fury Swipes. For Lunatone, he had it use Rock Throw to put rocks in the air, then practice building a tower out of them using Confusion. He had Swablu using Mist a little further away from the group, then using Fury Attack and Peck on different targets. And finally he had Gligar getting back into fighting shape by first going to different trees using Quick Attack, then using Slash and Steel Wing on a tree trunk. All of the pokemon were working hard, and Tristan was helping them with slight corrections to their form and giving them encouragement.

After Gary's pokemon were warmed up, he also had them do individual attack practice. He had his Umbreon working on its Quick Attack by zooming to different targets. His Dustox was using its Silver Wind to blow around leaves and twigs, and then using Psybeam to hit each one kicked up. Poochyena was using its Bite attack on a tree. Pelipper was using Water Gun on targets like Starmie. And Shellgon was doing Headbutt, Ember, and Bite on another tree.

After some time of doing this sort of practice, the gang took a break for some lunch. While the pokemon had fun playing around with each other, Gary and Tristan had a chance to talk.

"It's so much easier training back at the gym." Tristan started. "I have so many different things there to use. I have moving targets to make it even harder on Starmie and Swablu. And I have so many pokemon to spar with each other. Here I only have five pokemon with me."

"You know…we could spar with each other." Gary suggested. "Nothing too crazy, but like that double battle we did at Dewford. Hell, we could just do five on five."

Tristan thought for a moment. "Sure, that's not a bad idea. Battling practice is my favorite kind."

"After lunch then, we'll battle. So tell me about Wattson. I know he's electric types, but what's he like in a battle?" Gary asked.

"Wattson is like my crazy uncle. He's not actually related to me, but he treats us like family anyway. He'd let us play around with his little Electrike and Voltorb. And he helped me a lot with training my Magneton. And he once had this little Pichu that I loved to play with, but he gave it away to some trainer. I've never actually seen him in battle though. He could either stay as his fun loving self or turn into some crazy shouting lunatic. I don't know."

The two chatted a little longer, and then headed back outside for the ultimate in their training day, a five on five battle between Tristan and Gary. They took sides on the battlefield and got ready. They had randomly ordered their pokemon so that they did not know which one would come out when they battled. It added another fun element to the battle. Each tossed out their first pokeball. In front of Tristan appeared his Starmie. In front of Gary was his Pelipper.

"A battle of water types. This'll be fun." Tristan said. "You go first."

"Pelipper use Wing Attack."

"Dodge that then use Bubblebeam."

Starmie used its superior speed to dodge, and then shot out a Bubblebeam as Pelipper went sailing past. A huge stream of bubbles hit Pelipper at high speed. It did minimal damage to the part water type though.

"Pelipper, Supersonic now!"

Immediately the bird let out a high pitched noise that normally confuses its opponents. Tristan however had a grin on his face.

"Well played Gary, but I've trained Starmie way to long to let a Supersonic attack affect him. Starmie, show them your Psychic attack."

A shimmering blue light appeared around Pelipper as it stopped its attack. It was then slammed into the ground as if an anvil had been dropped on its head. It then was lifted back into the air before being slammed into a tree, knocking off a bunch of leaves. It was then thrown once more into the ground kicking up a bunch of dust. When it settled, Pelipper was knocked out. Gary was stunned, Tristan looked sheepish.

"A little too much I think Starmie." he said to his starter.

"Well, that was quick." Gary said. "What level is your Starmie?" he asked, not really having seen it in battle much and surprised at its strength.

"I'd say around level 75." replied Tristan. "You shouldn't feel bad about losing to that high level of a pokemon with your Pelipper. It's probably around level 30, so that's a huge difference." he said recalling Starmie. "Shall we continue?" he asked holding up another pokeball.

"Let's do it." This time it was Umbreon up against Gligar.

"So, now it's your most highly trained pokemon. This should be interesting. Gligar use Quick Attack."

"Show them your Quick Attack, Umbreon." Gary called out.

The two pokemon careened toward each other at high speed before colliding in a huge cloud of dust. When it settled, both pokemon looked like nothing had happened.

"Gligar use Slash."

"Dodge that Umbreon."

Even though Gligar had a speed advantage, the agility of Gary's Umbreon allowed it to successfully dodge.

"Now use your Shadow Ball, Umbreon."

Just like what had happened in the first battle, the moment Gligar turned around, it was met by a Shadow Ball. It did some damage to the flying/ground type.

"Shake it off Gligar and use Steel Wing."

"Counter with Hidden Power."

Gligar dove in towards Umbreon as it charged up its Hidden Power. Unfortunately, Gligar made contact before the attack could go off. Umbreon appeared to be fine though.

"Okay Umbreon, another Shadow Ball."

"Dodge that Gligar."

Gligar easily flew out of the way of the black blob.

"More Shadow Ball's Umbreon."

"Keep dodging Gligar."

More blobs began to fly towards Gligar. It dove up and down to avoid them. The way the attack was playing out, Gligar was being forced down towards the ground. Tristan noticed this too late.

"Use Quick Attack Umbreon."

"Shoot, get up out of the way Gligar!"

It was to no avail as the attack made contact with Gligar sending it flying head first into a tree. It fell down to the ground and stayed there for a moment before getting back up.

"Faint attack Umbreon."

"Look out Gligar- use Slash."

Umbreon walked over towards Gligar as if it was concerned for its well-being. Gligar's ears were clearly ringing from the impact as it did not listen to Tristan's command. It looked up at Umbreon, just in time to be knocked back down by the Faint attack. This time it did not get back up.

"I win this round." Gary said proudly.

Tristan recalled his Gligar. "You did your best." he said to it.

The next battle between the two was Lunatone versus Shellgon. Lunatone was able to take its resistance to normal and fire attacks to gain a huge defensive advantage over Shellgon. It then used its speed advantage and its rock and psychic type attacks to overtake Shellgon and give Tristan another victory.

The fourth matchup was between Nincada and Poochyena. Leech Life had a big effect on Poochyena, but it used its speed advantage and some well placed Tackle and Bite attacks to keep the battle close. The battle went on longer than Tristan or Gary expected. As it stretched on close to its fifth minute, both pokemon looked beat, but neither wanted to back down. Suddenly, both pokemon began to glow. Nincada began to glow white, and then suddenly got sucked into the empty pokeball on Tristan's belt. He looked up at Gary in shock, and then jumped up in the air pumping his fists. Meanwhile, Poochyena started to grow a lot in size and when the glowing went away, a Mightyena stood in its place.

"Awesome, you evolved!" Gary said to his Mightyena. It barked in response.

"Yes! Do you know what just happened? Do you realize what is sitting inside this pokeball right now?" he asked Gary holding the ball up in the air. He then tossed the ball onto the field. What came out of the ball was a nice new Shedinja.

"Cool." Gary said, looking over the Shedinja with his new Mightyena.

"Careful not to look in its back Gary," Tristan said in a teasing voice. "They say if you do, then Shedinja will steal your soul."

The two backed off of Shedinja after that. "It's not even moving. It's creepy." he said.

"Pssh. Shedinja is awesome. I'm totally using you in the gym battle buddy." he said lovingly to his newest pokemon.

"Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, we're still battling. Mightyena, use Bite."

The newly evolved dog bit onto Shedinja.

"Nooooooo!" Tristan cried as his Shedinja immediately went down.

"What happened?" Gary asked, getting worried at the sudden fall of Shedinja.

"Bite is a dark type attack. You got me." Tristan said. Gary looked even more confused. "With Shedinja, it only has 1 HP. But it makes up for it by being completely resistant to every type of attack except fire, flying, ghost, rock, and dark attacks. It's the ultimate weapon in some cases, and a complete dud in others. That's why I wanted it so bad."

"Ah, I see. Well in case you haven't noticed, it's tied up at two apiece." Gary said, holding up his last pokeball.

"Indeed I did notice that." Tristan said, recalling his Shedinja and reaching for his last pokemon. "Let's finish this."

They knew which pokemon were coming out. It was to be Tristan's Swablu against Gary's Dustox. Tristan knew he had the advantage since Dustox was weak against flying attacks, and Swablu was resistant to bug attacks.

"Swablu, use Safeguard."

Swablu glowed blue for a second and then it went away.

"Dustox use Psybeam."

"Dive to dodge that and come back with Mist."

Swablu just barely missed getting hit by the beam, and then was barely able to pull up without smashing into the ground. It then unleashed its Mist attack, causing a fine white mist to cloak the battlefield.

"Blow this away with Gust, Dustox."

Dustox flapped its wings hard and was able t o blow the mist away. When it was gone, Swablu was right behind Dustox!

"Use Peck at full power Swablu."

Swablu latched onto Dustox's back and then started pecking away at it. Dustox tried to fly away, but it couldn't shake Swablu.

"Loop around Dustox. You have to shake it off!" Gary called

Dustox did a series of loops and was finally able to escape from the constant pecking of Swablu. It had taken a lot of damage.

"Use Confusion Dustox."

Dustox's eyes turned shimmery and Swablu got knocked out of the air by the confusion attack. But it was not confused thanks to the effects of Safeguard.

"Come back at them with a Fury Attack, Swablu."

"Counter with Tackle, Dustox."

The two pokemon collided in mid air. Both were momentarily stunned, but then Swablu continued with its Fury Attack, hitting Dustox several times.

"Finish this off with another Peck attack."

"Try and head them off with a Silver Wind."

Tristan knew that Gary had realized things were not looking good if he was ordering a bug type attack. The Silver Wind slowed down Swablu, but it broke through and delivered a series of pecks on Dustox's head. Dustox fell from the sky, knocked out. The two trainers recalled their pokemon before shaking each others hands.

"That was fun." Gary said. "It felt good to get back into battling mode."

"I hear you. Nothing shows you how good you and your pokemon are doing than a good battle. And how about our evolutions? That was great!"

"I know! I had been wondering if my Poochyena was ever going to evolve. I'm glad it finally did. I wonder how it's going to act around my Umbreon now?"

"Oh boy, I smell love in the air." Tristan said with a grin.

--

The two headed back inside the Pokemon Center to get all of their pokemon healed.

"I saw you two battling out there." Nurse Joy said. "Are you two coordinators? That last battle of yours with the Swablu and Dustox was just beautiful to watch." she said.

"Um, no- we're trainers." Tristan replied. "Thanks for the compliment though."

The two headed over to the lounge after handing over their pokeballs. While they were waiting, Tristan was watching some TV while Gary picked up a magazine. On the screen, they were showing highlights of the previous day's pokemon contest in Slateport City. He was surprised to find that May had been competing in the contest!

"Hey Gary look- May's in that pokemon contest." Tristan said. Gary looked up at the TV.

"Huh. I guess she decided to switch from being a trainer to being a coordinator."

"I guess. I'll have to ask if I see her again. It looks like she did pretty well. She made it into the second round at least."

"I'm sure you'll see her again. I have the unfortunate luck of running into Ash a lot, so it's bound to happen eventually."

After the bit about the contest, the channel then went to the news. It was talking about a group of people called Team Aqua having tried to kidnap the water gym-leader Wallace.

"Do you know him Tristan?" Gary asked.

"A bit. He was the champion in the conference not that long ago. He took over the gym from Juan. Both of them are a little weird though. They both are big into coordinating as well as being a good trainer. I guess it makes sense that a group named Aqua would try to kidnap him since he has a lot of strong water types. He has this Milotic that will knock your socks off."

"Your pokemon are ready guys." Nurse Joy called out.

The two got their pokemon, and then decided to go out to a restaurant to eat dinner. They ate at a pizza joint that was nearby, and then headed back to the Pokemon Center to go to bed early so that they could battle Wattson in the morning. Both wound up staying up though, planning out their strategies that would earn them their fourth Hoenn badges.

--

**Sorry for the long delay in updating. I'm doing my best! Leave a review if you please...**


	18. All in the Family, Sort of

**Thanks to srgeman for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 18-**

Tristan and Gary were pumped for their gym battles against Wattson. The previous day of training had them both in their battling zones and nothing was going to stand in their way. They woke up at their normal time for gym battles- half hour before the gym opens and took care of getting ready and eating breakfast. Then without wasting any time they were out the door and heading towards the gym. They chatted about Wattson while they walked towards the gym.

"So I don't think I got a chance to ask you what Wattson is like." Gary said

"He's been like an uncle to me, so my brothers and I just call him Uncle Wattson. Always giving me crazy advice and stuff. But he did give me great help in raising my awesome Magneton. And for my thirteenth birthday he gave me my Lanturn- well it was a Chinchou when he gave it to me, but still. There are only two dual types that are part electric, so it meant a lot to get Lanturn. So yeah, he's been a positive influence on me and I respect him a lot. It's going to be really interesting battling with him today." Tristan said.

"Would you say he's the gym leader you respect the most?" Gary asked.

"No way. Winona is the one I respect the most. She's the best- really active in her town, super powerful pokemon, and an incredible trainer, not to mention a well respected gym leader. She's the leader of all the Hoenn gym leaders. She is the gym leader I most want to be like if I ever get the job."

"Huh. When do we battle her?"

"After Wattson. She's in Fortree which is the next stop for us."

"I thought most trainers went to Petalburg to battle Norman for their fifth badge."

"We're not most trainers though are we? Besides, most trainers battle different gyms than the one's we'll be going to."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll find out. Oh look, there's the gym." Tristan said pointing down the street. "Now there's something I'm supposed to remember about this gym, but what was it?"

Just as they were about to enter the gym, a frustrated younger trainer came barging out.

"What a stupid gym. Who builds traps and tricks for people that are trying to win a badge? Who does this guy think…" the kid grumbled as he sped away.

"Ah yes, now I remember. You see, Wattson likes to build crazy tricks along the path to where you battle him. He says it's something about keeping trainer's on their toes." Tristan explained.

"Well what are we going to do? Spring the trap?"

"No, I don't feel like dealing with all that bullshit this early in the morning. We are going to use the secret entrance. He has to keep a normal entrance here for special guests and stuff. I just so happen to know where that is. Follow me."

The two walked into the building next to the gym. It appeared to be an old warehouse. Tristan led Gary to an old elevator and pressed the B button. The elevator took them down for a bit and opened into a brightly lit hallway, with an arrow saying "GYM THIS WAY" on it. They followed the path, and it took them into a reception area. There was a woman behind the desk.

"Congratulations on getting through Wattson's tricks and traps. Are you here for a gym battle?"

"Er, yeah, those darn traps were difficult. Yes, we're both here to challenge Wattson." Tristan said.

"Have a seat, he will be right out." she said pressing a button. Sure enough in less than fifteen seconds, Wattson came out the door.

"Tristan my boy!" he exclaimed, walking over to Tristan and shaking his hand. "How you doing? You've gotten big. It's been a while."

"Thanks Uncle Wattson. I've been busy doing my latest adventure; I'm doing the Hoenn gym challenge with my friend Gary here."

"Nice to meet you sir." Gary said.

"Ha, nice to meet you too. Any friend of Tristan's is a friend of mine." Wattson said shaking Gary's hand as well. "So if you're doing the gym challenge, that must mean you two are here to get my Dynamo badge?"

"Yes sir." Tristan said.

"Ha! I never thought I'd see the day where I get to battle you in a gym battle." Wattson said to Tristan. "So who is going first?"

"I am." Tristan said.

"Excellent! Follow me then boys." Wattson said leading through the door he had come through. Upon reaching a fork, he told Gary to go left to go to the stands, and had Tristan follow him to the right to the battlefield. When they got there, the two took their places on opposite sides of the field. The judge stepped up to his position and recited his line.

"This will be a three on three pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Tristan from Azure Town, will be battling the gym leader Wattson for a Dynamo badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Are the trainers ready?"

"All set." said Tristan, while Wattson just gave a wave.

"Then begin!"

"I'll start easy on ya kid. Go Voltorb." Wattson said

"I know just what to do with that. Go Lunatone."

Lunatone and Magnemite floated in the air staring at each other for a moment before their trainers issued commands.

"Voltorb use Spark."

"Lunatone counter that with Psywave."

The two attacks collided in mid air creating an explosion and kicking up a lot of dust. When it settled, both pokemon were unhurt.

"Use Psychic and spin Voltorb on the ground, Lunatone."

Lunatone's eyes turned shimmery in color, and a blue aura formed around Voltorb, it was suddenly lifted into the air and slammed to the ground. It was then spun around faster and faster until it was clear that Voltorb was going to be sick. Wattson realized things did not look good, so ordered the only logical attack.

"Self Destruct Voltorb."

"Shit, get out of there Lunatone!"

Lunatone moved away as fast as it could, but when the explosion occurred, it took a lot of damage, only being saved from fainting by its resistance to normal type attacks.

"Voltorb is unable to battle. The winner is Lunatone." the judge said. Wattson recalled his now fainted Voltorb.

"Nice work Tristan. Psychic types are always a handful. Now try my Magnemite!" he said bringing his second pokemon into the battle.

"Magnemite use Sonic Boom."

"Counter that with a Psywave Lunatone."

The two attacks collided in the middle causing an explosion and kicking up a lot of dust. When it settled, both pokemon appeared unharmed.

"Lunatone, use Confusion and slam Magnemite into the ground, magnet side down. Make it stick."

Again Lunatone's eyes shimmered, and a red aura surrounded Magnemite. It was lifted up into the air, and then slammed into the ground. It was then lifted up and slammed again. On the fourth slam, Lunatone let it rest. Magnemite tried to get out of the ground, but it was stuck.

"Good work, now return." Tristan said recalling the half moon shaped pokemon. "Your turn Gligar." he said calling out the ground/flying type. "Your Magnemite is exceptionally weak against ground attacks isn't it Uncle Wattson?" Tristan asked. "So I think it's time for a good strong Dig attack Gligar. And don't worry about Magnemite trying to dodge, Gligar. It's a little stuck."

Gligar went into the ground. It went pretty far down then came rocketing up towards Magnemite. It's eye was as wide as it could get knowing the pain that was speeding towards it and did everything it could to break out of the ground, but it was no good. Gligar connected on its attack and sent Magnemite flying. It made a nice arc and landed on the other side of the battlefield, and did not get back up.

"Magnemite is unable to battle. The winner is Gligar."

Wattson recalled Magnemite. "Well, I've got to say that was a very interesting strategy. My poor Magnemite is going to be feeling that for a while. All I have left to defeat you with is Magneton." he said tossing his final pokeball.

"And I've got just the pokemon for this final battle." Tristan said, recalling his Gligar. "Say hello to my newest pokemon, Shedinja!"

"Ha! You've got me there! I'm in trouble. My Magneton only knows Electric and Normal type attacks. I will be unable to damage your Shedinja. I surrender." Wattson said, recalling his final pokemon.

"Wait, what?" Tristan asked, the grin sliding off his face. "Battle me anyway!"

"I don't think so Tristan. I know when I'm beat. I hardly scratched your other two pokemon and I know there won't be anything I can do to your Shedinja. That is an excellent pokemon to bring into a gym battle. The battle is yours. Here is your Dynamo badge." Wattson said, handing Tristan the badge.

"But, I don't feel like I've earned this."

"Come on now, Tristan. You handily defeated me. Even if I could have done something to your Shedinja, you still have your Gligar and Lunatone still to go. My Magneton is strong, but not that strong. You showed clear skill in raising top notch pokemon, and you had impeccable strategy in beating me. You definitely deserve this badge. Now let me go get my group healed up so I can battle Gary. Tell him it will be about fifteen minutes. I've got a healing machine here at the gym."

Wattson walked off to get his pokemon recharged, while Tristan walked down the hallway he had entered the battlefield from. There was Gary waiting for him.

"Wow Tristan. You got a gym leader to forfeit a battle. I've never seen that before." Gary said.

"Yeah, I guess that's kind of cool. I'm lucky that Magneton only really learn Normal and Electric type attacks- I know that from raising mine. I wonder though if it's fair of me to use Shedinja in gym battles." he asked, more to himself than Gary.

"If it gets you wins, stick with it." Gary said, encouragingly.

"Hmm. We'll see. Anyway, ready for your battle?"

"You bet. I'm pumped up. After seeing a whipping like that, I can't wait to get out there."

"Alright. He said he'd be back in fifteen minutes, so you've got time to talk to your pokemon. I'm actually going to the stands to do a debrief with my three. Good luck!" Tristan said, walking towards the stands.

--

After an agonizingly long wait (for Gary), Wattson reappeared into the battle arena.

"Ho ho! I'm glad to see you're all ready down here for our battle Gary. I'm hope you give me as good a battle as Tristan did!"

"I will try." Gary replied.

The two walked to their sides of the battle field. The judge stepped up and did his thing.

"This will be a three on three pokemon match with no time limit. The challenger, Gary from Pallet Town, will be battling the gym leader Wattson for a Dynamo badge. The challenger may substitute their pokemon during the battle while the gym leader cannot. The trainer with the last pokemon standing wins. Are the trainers ready?"

"Yes." they replied.

"Then begin!"

"I'll switch it up this time and start off with my Magnemite." Wattson said calling out the magnet pokemon.

"And I'll start off with Mightyena." Gary said throwing in its pokeball. "Mightyena, start off with a big Sand-attack."

Mightyena began kicking up huge plumes of sand from the ground at Magnemite. This greatly took away from the accuracy of its potent electric attacks.

"Blow the sand away with some Sonicbooms, Magnemite. And see if you can hit Mightyena while you're at it."

"Dodge those Mightyena, and be ready to Tackle it when the sand clears." Gary ordered

It took three Sonicbooms for the sand to clear away from around Magnemite. When it did finally clear it, it looked around for only a second before getting slammed into by a strong Tackle from Mightyena.

"Shake it off Magnemite and use Thundershock."

"Try and dodge Mightyena."

Mightyena did its best to use its speed advantage and dodge the electric attack but eventually it got hit, doing some damage.

"Now use Thunder Wave Magnemite."

"Do a Sand-attack to block."

Mightyena kicked up sand as Magnemite released the paralyzing waves of its Thunder Wave. The sand did the job of dispersing the waves and protected Mightyena.

"_I've got to get out of this match up"_ Gary thought. "Mightyena, use Roar!" Gary said, hoping above all hope that Mightyena had learned that move. Luckily, it had, and Magnemite immediately was recalled into its pokeball, scared.

"Well, I guess it's on to someone else…" Wattson said. "Go Voltorb." he said calling out the ball-shaped menace. "Use Charge."

"While it's Charging use Tackle."

"Try your best to dodge Voltorb."

Voltorb tried to roll around while focusing on its Charge, but there's no way a ball is getting away from a dog, as Mightyena caught up and slammed into it, sending Voltorb flying across the field.

"That's okay Voltorb, use Spark."

"Try Sand-attack again Mightyena."

Kicking up the sand worked once again against the electric type move.

"Now use Bite."

Mightyena ran up and bit down on Voltorb, acting like it was chewing on a tennis ball.

"Self-destruct Voltorb."

"Get out of there Mightyena!"

Unfortunately for Gary, it was too quick of an explosion for any escape. When the dust cleared, both pokemon lay knocked out on the ground.

"Both Mightyena and Voltorb are unable to battle." announced the judge. Both trainers recalled their pokemon.

"Back to work, Magnemite." Wattson said.

"Your turn, Umbreon." Gary said, calling out his longest serving pokemon.

"Try a Supersonic, Magnemite."

"Don't let that get to you Umbreon. Keep your focus." Gary said. Umbreon closed its eyes and focused itself, ignoring the ear-shattering waves being emitted by Magnemite.

"Use a Shadow Ball to shut it up." Gary said.

Umbreon charged up a Shadow Ball and hit the little magnet dead on, but it did not deal that much damage.

"Thundershock, Magnemite."

"Dodge it with your Quick Attack Umbreon, and see if you can't hit it while you're at it."

Umbreon did a better job than Mightyena at dodging the electric bolts, but couldn't get close enough to land a hit.

"Hidden Power, Umbreon."

"Hit it while it's charging up Magnemite."

Umbreon charged up a big Hidden Power, but took damage from the Thundershock while waiting. Finally the attack was unleashed, hitting Magnemite. Magnemite faltered a bit, and fell towards the ground, but was not knocked out.

"It's weak Umbreon, do a Shadow Ball."

"Counter with Sonic Boom."

The two attacks collided, but the Shadow Ball was more powerful than the Sonic Boom, and a lot of the aftershock was pushed back onto Magnemite.

"Quick Attack."

From Magnemite's view, all it saw was the dust settling from the last attack, and then a black blur emerging from the dust and slamming into it. This was enough to knock Magnemite out for good."

"Magnemite is unable to battle. The winner is Umbreon."

Umbreon gave a bark of happiness, while Wattson recalled his second pokemon. "Nice work Gary. I'm down by one. But I think my next pokemon will get me the win, and it's not who you think. Go Manectric." Wattson said, calling out a pokemon Gary was a little more unfamiliar with than the Magneton that he was expecting. He quickly consulted his pokedex to read up on its weaknesses, and found he was in a better position than if he was going against Magneton.

"Okay, stay out there Umbreon. Start off with Quick Attack."

"Why don't you show them your Quick Attack, Manectric?"

The two dog-like pokemon darted around the field trying to land hits on each other. Eventually, the wear from the previous battle caught up with Umbreon, and Manectric landed a hit.

"That's okay Umbreon, try and get them with a Hidden Power."

"Dodge it Manectric, then use Shock Wave."

Manectric waited for Umbreon to finish charging up its Hidden Power. When Umbreon fired, it jumped out of the way, barely getting hit, then let out a Shock Wave that hit Umbreon dead on. Umbreon was barely hanging on now.

"I know you can get them with one more attack Umbreon. Try a Quick Attack into a Shadow Ball."

"Dodge with your Quick Attack again Manectric."

The two pokemon again darted around trying to hit each other, but Umbreon was focusing more on charging up a Shadow Ball than with hitting Manectric. When it finally released the attack, it hit Manectric in the back. Manectric retaliated by hitting Umbreon with its Quick Attack. Umbreon went down.

"Umbreon is unable to battle. The winner is Manectric."

"Last pokemon for both of us." Gary said, recalling his Umbreon to its pokeball- something rare as of late. "It's up to you Shellgon." Gary said, relying on the dragon type to get the win.

"Well, at least I get a nice full battle from you unlike some people I know." Wattson said poking fun at Tristan.

"I told you to battle me!" Tristan yelled from the stands shaking his fist.

"Anyways…" Gary said, "Shellgon use Bite."

"Dodge it Manectric and use Quick Attack."

Manectric easily outmaneuvered the slower Shellgon and connected on the Quick Attack.

"Shake it off Shellgon and use Focus Energy."

"Zap it while it's focusing."

Manectric used its Shock Wave on Shellgon, doing minimal damage while Shellgon charged up its stats.

"Now use Ember."

"Dodge Manectric."

Manectric did its best to dodge, but in the end got hit with several of the embers thanks to the increased stats Shellgon had, which left some burns as well.

"Counter back with Thunder Wave."

"Run right through it with Headbutt."

The Focus Energy coupled with Shellgon resistance to electricity allowed it to barrel right through the paralyzing waves of the Thunder Wave and right into Manectric, connecting right with its muzzle. The attack clearly took a toll on Manectric, as it started to stumble around the field.

"Finish this with another Ember."

"Do something Manectric- dodge or Quick Attack."

Manectric was too woozy to dodge and got hit dead on with the Ember attack. Manectric collapsed to the ground.

"Manectric is unable to battle. The winner is Shellgon. Victory goes to the challenger, Gary!" the judge announced.

"Awesome!" Gary said, while Shellgon ran around in circles cheering. Wattson recalled his fallen pokemon and walked over to Gary.

"That was a much more entertaining battle than my last one. You certainly deserve the Dynamo Badge." Wattson said, handing Gary the badge.

"Thank you very much. That was a tough one for me. Those three were really my only chance against you, so I'm very glad they stood up to the challenge."

The two walked out to the lobby where Tristan was waiting for them. "Tough luck Uncle Wattson- two losses in a day."

"Oh well, it was fun and that's all that matters. So where are you two heading next, Lavaridge?" Wattson asked.

"No, we've already been up that way." Tristan said with a slight edge to his voice. "We'll be heading over to Fortree now."

"Well be careful. I've been hearing a lot about this Team Aqua and Team Magma. Be sure to keep your wits about you."

"No one can take us by surprise." Tristan said. Gary nudged him in the side and gave him a significant look. "Well, not anymore at least." he added. "Don't ask."

Wattson laughed. "You youngsters and your crazy adventures. Well, good luck Tristan and Gary. You are well on your way to getting the eight badges you need. Have fun and stay safe. Oh and Tristan, call your mother. I know you probably haven't been."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll do it at the pokemon center." Tristan said, waving his hand. "See you later Uncle Wattson." he called as they walked out the door. The two headed out the way they came in, and walked back to the Pokemon Center. After getting their pokemon healed, they hitched up their bags and walked out the door towards Route 118, eager to get their next badges.

--

Meanwhile…

"Are you guy's ready?" the leader asked.

"Yes sir." the four grunts around him answered.

"Alright. Tomorrow, operation Chillar goes into effect." he said, laughing gleefully at the long awaited arrival of the start of his sinister plan.

--

**A/N- It's been a while, huh? I rewarded you guys' patience with the longest chapter yet- almost 4000 words! I'll probably update a little more quickly, because I'm really enjoying writing what happens next. Stay tuned! Reviews make me work even faster...**


	19. The Kidnapping of Tristan Chillar

**Thanks to Blue Bongo, Yukilumi, MetalPrincess13, and srgeman for reviewing. Also, I want to apologize for the huge mistake I made involving Gary's Bagon/Shellgon. Blue Bongo correctly pointed out that Bagon did evolve earlier in the story. Needless to say, I felt like an idiot for making a sloppy mistake like that. I've gone back and re-tooled chapters 17 and 18 to rectify my mistakes. I'll be sure not to do that again.**

**--**

**Chapter 19-**

Before leaving the Pokemon Center in Mauville, Tristan had decided to get his Lapras from home so he and Gary could just ride over the water to Route 118 on its back. Tristan was happy to be able to have six pokemon back in his party now that he finally had gotten his Shedinja. The two reached the waterfront just after noon and crossed over riding on Lapras' back. Tristan had another reason for getting his Lapras though. He knew Winona was going to be a tough match for him and Gary. He was going to refresh Lapras to take advantage of flying type's weakness against ice attacks, of which his Lapras knew two. The ride over took a couple of minutes, then the duo headed down the road.

"How long before you think we get to Fortree?" Gary asked.

"It shouldn't take that long. We'll get to Route 119 before too long and then it's a straight shot to Fortree. The sucky thing about 119 is that there are a lot of parts with tall grass that's a little hard to get through. It might slow us down a bit but I bet it only take five days at the most. Plus we need to keep our eyes open for another one of my dual-types. I should be able to catch a Tropius along here."

"Let me see what it is you're talking about." Gary said pulling out his pokedex and looking up the information for Tropius. The pokedex began to speak-

"_**Tropius, the Fruit Pokemon. It flies by flapping its broad leaves. The bunch of fruit that grows around its neck are deliciously sweet. In the spring, it scatters pollen from around its neck." **_

"It's a dual flying and grass type like my awesome Jumpluff, but it is way stronger than a Jumpluff. I can have it know Solarbeam and Magical Leaf and Steel Wing. Not to mention that fruit is really good. And it can fly, and I could ride on it! Oh I can't wait to get one." Tristan said jumping with excitement.

"Okay, calm down before you hurt yourself." Gary said. "Geez."

The two walked on for a half hour before reaching the turn for Route 119. It didn't take them long before they got to some of the more grassy areas. They decided to just set up camp and trek through the grass jungle the next day. Tristan went to sleep that night dreaming about himself battling with a soon to be caught Tropius. Little did he know that more sinister people were going to bed with dreams involving him as well.

--

The duo awoke the next morning and got ready to get covered in grass, pollen, and those little burs that get caught on your clothes and are hard to get off. This meant wearing long sleeves on a hot day, since the burs are much better than getting hundreds of little cuts. It was an annoying hike to say the least. There would be several yards of grass, then plain land for a bit, then more grass, then flat land. After a couple hours, they got to the biggest grass field yet. They agreed that after they got to the other side, they would take a rest and eat some lunch. Tristan was seriously regretting not having his Charizard or Blaziken with him to toast the whole place. They were about five minutes into the field when they got to a part that was completely clear like someone had taken a giant weed whacker to the place. The grass lay on the ground almost an inch deep.

"This is odd." Tristan said.

"Yeah, it's like someone cut a big circle in the middle of the field." Gary said. Suddenly, a helicopter came roaring overhead. Then two more flew in.

"What the hell is going on?" Tristan shouted over the noise.

"I don't know, but let's get out of here." Gary shouted back. He took off into the grass with Tristan following him in. The two could hear the helicopters following them as well as the shouts of people, so they kept running.

"If we stay in the tall grass, they can't see us." Gary panted.

"Let's stay in the tall grass then shall we?" Tristan panted back. Suddenly though, they ran into another giant cleared out circle. They knew they couldn't turn back in case the people following them caught up.

"Let's make a break for it." Tristan said. The two ran as fast as they could, when suddenly they heard a giant whooshing sound, and Tristan found himself enclosed in a giant net. He turned around and saw one of the people in one of the helicopters holding what looked like a rocket launcher, only it had the end of the net attached. Tristan shouted out to Gary, who skidded to a halt and turned around only to see Tristan being lifted off the ground in the net.

"Don't let them steal my pokemon Gary!" was all he could say as he tossed his six pokeballs down to Gary before being taken away.

"Tristan!" Gary shouted. The noise of the helicopters started to die away, as did the shouts of the people following them. Gary stood there stunned. He looked down at Tristan's pokeballs and the lovingly raised pokemon inside them as well as at the gym. He knew he had to act quickly to help Tristan. He started by calling out his Dustox.

"Dustox, hurry up and follow those helicopters. Try and stay out of sight. When they land, report back to me in Mauville." he said hurriedly. Dustox immediately took off towards the retreating outlines of the helicopters. Then he began to sprint with all his might back to Mauville to get help.

--

Tristan had no idea what was going on, but he was definitely feeling fear about his current situation. He was dangling from a net way above the land, going quite fast in some random direction. He took solace in the fact that at least his pokemon should be safe. Other than that little fact though, he didn't know anything else. The net was digging into his skin, yet he was clinging to it for dear life considering it was the only thing separating him from the ground. The trip to wherever he was being taken took about a half hour. Tristan almost felt relieved when the helicopter began to descend to land, before realizing that this meant he was about to meet whoever was kidnapping him. The helicopter finally got positioned over a helipad on some building and began to descend. Tristan looked down and saw a group of about five people ready to apprehend him. He noticed they all seemed to be wearing some sort of pirate outfit, the same as the rocket launcher guy.

"_Great. Kidnapped by pirates. There is no way this can be good."_ Tristan thought.

The net was lowered until he was just off the ground. Then one of the pirates cut the net open from the bottom causing Tristan to tumble down and land on his knees, which hurt. Two of them immediately swooped in and tied his hands behind his back and stood him back up. The person who appeared to be the leader stepped forward.

"Hello there Tristan Chillar. My name is Matt and I'm an admin for Team Aqua. You my friend have just been commissioned by Team Aqua to do something very important for us."

"And what might that be?" Tristan spat, knowing Team Aqua meant no good.

"All in good time. Take him away."

The two pirates took Tristan and lead him into the building onto an elevator. It went down for a while before opening to a hallway that looked like a dungeon.

"_I being sent to the brig."_ Tristan thought sarcastically. He was lead to one of the first ones, had the rope around his hands untied, and thrown in. Tristan was surprised to find it was furnished fairly well. There was a single bed with sheets on it, a desk, carpet on the floor, and a toilet and sink in the corner. He sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands.

"What have I gotten dragged into?" He wondered aloud.

--

Gary ran the whole way back to Route 118 and then all the way to the waterfront. When he got there, he called out Tristan's Lapras. It looked around for its trainer before looking at Gary with a questioning look.

"Look Lapras, Tristan is in big trouble. I need you to take me back to Mauville so we can get help okay?"

Lapras immediately turned around to let Gary on its back and swam as fast as possible to the other shore, literally spraying water up behind it. Once they got there, Gary recalled Lapras and continued his sprint to the police station. He burst through the front doors and called for Officer Jenny. She came out to see what the matter was.

"Officer Jenny, my friend was kidnapped on Route 119. It was a bunch of people in helicopters. They fired a net and took him away." he explained while trying to catch his breath.

"Did you see the people in the helicopters or any markings on the copters themselves?" she asked.

"The helicopters were blue. The guy had a black and white striped shirt and a blue bandana."

"Oh no. Tell me, did they look like this?" Jenny said reaching for a picture and showing it to Gary.

"He didn't look like that, but that is the same uniform." he said.

"This is not good. Your friend was kidnapped by Team Aqua." she said.

"You're kidding. Aren't they the ones doing all the kidnappings recently? Do you know where their hideout is? Can you help?"

"I'll do the best I can. I'm first going to have to get some information. What is your friend's name?" she asked, sitting down at a computer.

"Tristan Chillar." Gary replied. She typed the name in and a file on Tristan popped up with a flashing alert.

"He is affiliated with the Hoenn Pokemon League?" she asked, concerned. She continued to scan the file. "Oh, he is a gym leader's son. Alright, then we have all of his information. Okay, I'm going to contact all of the regional police stations, as well as the League Headquarters. Is there anything else you need to tell me?" she asked.

"I had my Dustox follow the helicopters as they left. I told it to come back to Mauville when they land, but depending on how far away they take him, it could be awhile." he said.

"That was great thinking!" she said. "We've had no real leads on where they hide out, so this could be a big break in the case! Okay, I'm going to make those calls, you just stay here."

"Wait. You are going to call his parents right?" Gary asked.

"Yes I will."

"Can I be there for that call?"

"Sure. I let you know."

Gary sat down in the chair and put his head in his hands. He felt so helpless. He just hoped he would be able to be of some use to getting Tristan back before something bad happened."

--

After a couple of hours, someone finally walked into Tristan's cell. He was lying on the bed when the door opened. He sat up to find it was that Matt guy from before.

"How are you doing, Tristan? Is the room comfortable? I have some food on the way for you."

"The room is fine, but I'm not. Why did you take me?" Tristan asked angrily.

"Well I see there will be no denying you from your desired answers. Very well then. We at Team Aqua are looking for an item called the Blue Orb. With it, we will be able to raise a pokemon that we cherish, Kyogre." He started. When he said Kyogre, Tristan instinctively reached up and touched his necklace. Matt noticed this. "Yes, you have a necklace with Kyogre's symbol on it. That is the reason we need you. We found some information that told us a child would be born with the knowledge of the Blue Orbs whereabouts, and that it would be marked by Kyogre. Our sources found out that the gym leader in Azure Town found a pendant shaped in that symbol, while walking on the beach with her first born son. The pendant you wear was found by your mother on the shores near Azure Town, a known area where Kyogre has been sighted. We have figured that you are the one marked by Kyogre with the information we seek." He explained.

"But I have no idea what a Blue Orb even is!" Tristan protested.

"Yes, we knew you wouldn't. The knowledge is locked deep inside your mind. We have built a memory machine though that will unlock those memories for you. And then you can tell us where the Blue Orb is." Matt said.

"Why would I help you? What do you want with Kyogre anyway?"

"Oh I assure you that you will help us." he said with a grin while getting up. "Your food will be delivered shortly. Tomorrow, you have a date with the memory machine."

And with that he walked out the door, while another Team Aqua member delivered a tray with a chicken dinner on it, then walked back out, shutting and locking the door behind him. Tristan slowly began to eat, deep in thought about whether or not Matt's legend was true, and if he had that information. He also worried about what Team Aqua would do to him to extract that information. He had a feeling it was going to be unenjoyable.

"Please hurry up and find me someone." Tristan prayed silently.

--

**Quite a bind huh? Leave me reviews and tell me what you think should happen...**


	20. Anxiously Waiting

**Thanks to srgeman and Final Flame Dragon for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 20-**

"This is Sarah Williamson for Hoenn Action News. We have breaking news just in out of Mauville City- rumors are swirling that another kidnapping attempt by Team Aqua has occurred, and this one was a success. There is no word yet on who the victim is, but we will continue to monitor the situation and bring you updates as they become available. "

--

"What more can you tell me?" Sophie Chillar asked softly into the phone.

"We don't know much more than we've said, Mrs. Chillar. Team Aqua has had unclear motives since they first started committing crimes. You know about as much about them as we do." Officer Jenny replied, Gary sitting next to her.

"I remember we had that conference awhile back and I've seen the news, I just want to know why Tristan?"

"We will try and figure that out. It could be a move against the league, it could be another reason related to their cause, we just don't know yet."

"We are doing something though Mrs. Chillar," Gary piped up. "I had my Dustox trail their helicopter, so hopefully we can find out where they are."

"Thanks Gary. I appreciate your help more than you know." Sophie said. "Alright, I'm on my way to Mauville. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"We'll see you then." Jenny said, hanging up the phone. "That went the best I could have hoped for." She said turning to Gary. "I hope your Dustox can help us- we have a lot riding on it."

"Me too." He replied. She walked out of the room leaving Gary sitting still at the phone. He looked down at the six pokeballs in his hands- Tristan's pokemon. "There's got to be more I can do" he said aloud. Suddenly he turned to the phone and began dialing a number. He knew some backups he could bring in to help with this…

--

Tristan was bored out of his mind. He had no idea what time it was since he had no clock in his cell, but he knew it was nighttime. He sat on the bed staring at the ceiling for awhile, lost in his thoughts. Just yesterday he had been earning his fourth badge, now he was a kidnapping victim by a deranged group of pirates that thought they could zap him with a memory ray and that he'd help them get some orb thing. He thought about his pokemon and felt a pang of guilt at how worried they probably were about him, but was glad that they were with Gary instead of here.

Out of nowhere, an Aqua guy walked in followed by Matt, followed by another guy who was holding another person captive, their face covered by a mask. He yanked the mask off and Tristan gasped in shock- it was Flannery!

"We thought you should see our newest friend." Matt said. "Have you met?"

"Tristan? They took you too?" Flannery asked. "Let us go!" she yelled.

"What did you take her for?" Tristan asked angrily.

"Our dear little fire princess here might have information our buddies in Team Magma might find useful. This is merely a preventative measure to keep her away from them." he explained in his mocking voice. "Take her away." He ordered.

"Tristan!" she yelled out to him as she was forcibly removed from the room.

"You realize that kidnapping a gym leader is going to get the attention of every police department on the continent not to mention the League, right?" Tristan said through gritted teeth.

"It makes no difference. By tomorrow evening your usefulness will be up, and we will be moving the gym leader to another location. Plus, this place is well hidden. No one is worried about being found by the League before we have completed our task. Now I must leave- I advise you to sleep. You have a big day ahead of you." He said turning around and leaving, being sure to slam the door shut. Tristan stared at the door for a moment and then pounded the bed with his fists in frustration.

--

"We have an unfortunate update on the Team Aqua kidnappings. Apparently two victims related to the Hoenn Pokemon League are the ones that have been taken. The first person abducted was 16 year old Tristan Chillar, son of Azure Town gym leader Sophie Chillar. It occured along Route 119 where Chillar was traveling along with Gary Oak of Kanto. Then later this afternoon 16 year old Flannery Moore, the new gym leader in Lavaridge and granddaughter of acclaimed former elite four member Mr. Moore was taken. It happened somewhere near Lavaridge while she was out training. Moore became a gym leader only recently, taking over the post that has been held by her grandfather since his retirement from the elite four, and is very popular amongst the citizens of Lavaridge. Chillar is a well known trainer from the Hoenn region known for his good showings at other regional pokemon league tournaments and his popularity amongst girls who follow the league.

The location of the two teens is unknown at this point, nor is the reason for their kidnappings. League official are mum to this point on the response the League plans on taking, but have said that everything will be looked at in trying to rescue the two teens. We will continue to follow the story as it develops. This is Sarah Williamson, HAN."

--

"Of course we have to do something!" Norman said loudly, pounding his fists at his table.

"Calm down Norman." Winona said soothingly. The League had set up a conference call with the remaining gym leaders they could get a hold of, plus the elite four and the current champion and Officer Jenny to discuss what should be done. To say it had been a tense conversation so far would be an understatement.

"I don't care what you all decide, I'm going to Mauville whether you like it or not." Kyle, the Orchid Town gym leader said, a fierce look of determination on his face. "They have taken two of my closest friends, and I'm not going to take that sitting down."

"Here, here." Wattson agreed.

"We can't just go running around like a bunch of headless Pidgey's looking blindly for these people." Wallace pointed out. "Officer Jenny, is there any word yet on the location of the helicopter from Mr. Oak's Dustox?"

"Not yet. We are hopeful it will come back soon. Gary is waiting outside the station here and I have Nurse Joy on the lookout at the Pokemon Center."

"Well what are we going to do when it does check back in? We should have a plan ready to execute." Norman said.

"I agree!" came a chorus of several voices.

"Then let's plan this out…." Steven said.

--

Gary waited around outside anxiously for one of two things to arrive to him, his backups or his pokemon. He had paced back and forth for the same fifteen feet for the past hour, though it felt longer. He had his Umbreon out to keep him company and give him someone to talk to to keep his nerves under control. Though he exuded a calm exterior at all times, inside he felt emotions just as strong as anyone. And the emotions he currently felt were too many to count. Fear for his friends, disappointment with himself for not being able to save Tristan, impatience for his Dustox to return, and boiling anger at Team Aqua just to name a few.

"When I get my hands on them…" Gary said to his Umbreon.

"Then you will be getting the bloody pulp that I've left behind." came a voice from behind him. He turned around and was relieved to see Gabrielle had arrived.

"Glad you could come so quickly." he said.

"Well I figured someone with some brains needed to help out a bit. Tristan's lucky I didn't have a contest to be competing in." she said, though without the same level of smugness Gary was accustomed to. "What more can you tell me?"

"Well they apparently also took Flannery- I'm sure you remember her from Lavaridge. The League is going to get involved now- Officer Jenny told me they're making up a plan as we speak."

"Glad they have the backbone here to take these idiots on. I hated being part of the Johto Pokemon League- they're half idiots, half egotistical crazies."

"Anyway, I'm waiting for my Dustox to get back to let us know what direction the helicopter went. Then we can hopefully set out after them."

"I'll wait with you."

Both sat down on the bench, wordlessly looking to the sky for a bug that had the hopes of a lot of people riding on its wings.

--

Tristan had been sleeping for what seemed like only a couple minutes to him before the door was slammed open again by the Aqua grunts and Matt, waking him up.

"It's time for your appointment with the memory ray." Matt said.

"Was that today?" Tristan asked sarcastically, slowly sitting up in the bed. He looked outside and saw it was just past sunrise. "Can I reschedule?"

"Cut the crap kid. Tie him up." He ordered to the grunts. They came up and put ropes around Tristan's wrists to tie them together behind his back and put a gag on his mouth. They then began to lead him down the halls to the machine. They went through several corridors and down the elevator again before arriving in a large room with a table, a big laser looking thing, and lots of computers and consoles with more pirates sitting at the controls. The two grunts lead him to the table, untied his wrists and removed the gag, removed his shirt, and strapped him onto the table. Tristan was starting to get scared. The laser thing looked like it could kill him, not unlock non-existent memories. A pirate wearing a lab coat came up to him at the table and attached some sensors to his chest and head. She then put a strap over his forehead so he couldn't move his head around.

"The ray should not cause you any psychological or physical harm. What you need to do is just look at the light when we tell you to. If you follow our directions, nothing will go wrong. You will probably become lightheaded after the procedure is done but that will pass quickly. Do you understand?"

"Are you sure you guys have to do this?" Tristan asked. The woman just laughed and then headed back to her console.

"Starting initial calibration of the ray." a person called out. The ray machine started to hum, getting louder and louder. It coincided perfectly with Tristan's steadily rising fear.

"Calibration complete." another voice called out.

"Move subject into position."

Suddenly the table that Tristan was lying on began to tilt forward. When it stopped, he was at about a 60 degree angle to the floor.

"Subject is in position."

"Adjust waves to subject's frequency."

"Adjustment complete."

"Move the ray into position."

The machine began to move closer to Tristan. It drew closer and closer, while Tristan looked at it wide eyed in fear. It stopped when it was about five feet from him, and was pointing directly at his eyes.

"_Well, this is it. If this thing kills me_…" Tristan thought, not wanting to go further along that train of thinking.

"Ray is in position."

"Tristan, I need you to look at the light." the woman from before said. He looked at it, given that he had no other option.

"Engage ray."

--

"There's my Dustox!" Gary cried, leaping to his feet. It was just past sunrise. He had not slept the entire night, even though both Officer Jenny and Sophie, who had arrived around midnight, had insisted he try. Gabrielle hadn't either.

"I'll get Officer Jenny and Sophie." She said, taking off into the police station. Dustox spotted Gary and made a beeline for him. It landed on the ground and fell over in exhaustion. Officer Jenny came running out of the building with Gabrielle and Sophie right behind her.

"Get me Nurse Joy on the double." She called into her radio upon seeing the state of Gary's Dustox. Nurse Joy arrived in minutes with a police escort. She immediately began working to fix up Gary's Dustox from its apparently long flight. After a few minutes, she let the three know that they could talk to Dustox, but it needed a good rest to recover afterwards. Gary approached his Dustox.

"Dustox, did you follow the helicopter to a building?" he asked. Dustox nodded.

"Were there a lot of people there?" Again it nodded.

"Can you point us in the direction of the building?" Dustox nodded and turned towards the southeast. Officer Jenny got out her compass to take an exact reading on the direction and then put the results into the computer.

"They must be on one of the islands to the north of the ocean current. I'll inform the League of the news. They can enact their plan at once. Before I go, do you two want to be a part of the rescue?"

"It's not even a question Officer." Gary replied immediately. Gabrielle nodded her head in agreement.

"I thought so. Thanks for all of you help Gary and Dustox." She said before leaving the room to make the call. Gary reached his hand into his pocket and felt the six pokeballs that belonged to his friend. He had let them out last night to give them some food and to fill them in on what had happened. The pokemon were upset at what had happened, but seemed determined to be reunited with their trainer no matter what.

--

"Steven this is Jenny. We have a possible location on the Aqua hideout. We ran the information from the Dustox against our satellite imagery and have found a large complex with a large amount of air traffic coming in and out of it within the past few days on an island just north of Route 133. I've sent the coordinates to you. Are you ready to enact the plan?"

"Yes. I'll inform the rescue team. We'll rendezvous with you in Mauville within the next few hours. Then we'll head to the location."

"See you in a few hours then."

--

"We have an update in the Team Aqua kidnapping story that we've been following. Rumors are flying that a large rescue operation is apparently being undertaken by Hoenn League officials including several gym leaders as well as the Elite Four and reigning champion Steven Stone. It's been a day since two teens related to the League, gym leader Flannery Moore of Lavaridge Town and popular trainer Tristan Chillar of Azure Town, were kidnapped by Team Aqua. It's been speculated that the move is to not only rescue the teens but also eliminate Team Aqua and bring them to justice. We will continue to monitor the situation here at Hoenn Action News and bring you the latest on any developments. This is Sarah Williamson, HAN."

--

**So after some thought, I've decided that I want/need someone to beta this story for me. Anyone interested? I'm looking for plot and character review and feedback more so than spelling and grammar stuff. PM me if you would like the job... **

**Oh yeah, and be sure to review! **


	21. This is Gonna Hurt

**I want to thank srgeman for not only reviewing but for agreeing to beta this story. I can't put into words how much your help has meant to me. A million thanks.**

**Let me warn you all, this chapter gets a little violent.  
**

**--**

**Chapter 21-**

Tristan saw the beam of light start to form and it hit him right in the eyes. He had no idea what to expect, but he expected something to happen. It surprised him then that nothing happened. At least he was pretty sure nothing happened. He looked over his body to make sure he wasn't injured. He quickly listed the pokemon that he owns in his head to make sure he still had all his memories. He went through the 12 times table to make sure he still had cognition. It looked to him like everything was still in order. Then he turned his thoughts to the blue orb. There were no thoughts there. No secret memories were unlocked. He still had no idea what it looked like let alone where it was hidden. Clearly the big bad memory unlocking ray was a big failure for Team Aqua. Tristan was sure that they'd take this crushing failure and huge loss of money well. Or not.

"Tristan, can you hear me?" Matt asked.

"Yes I can." he replied.

"Do you know where you are?"

"I'm at Team Aqua's hideout."

"Excellent!" he said as now more Aqua people closed in around Tristan, excited looks on their faces. He became acutely aware of the fact that he was strapped completely to a table and unable to do anything to defend himself from the almost certain anger his lack of new knowledge was about to cause.

"So, why don't you just tell me about the location of the blue orb then?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, about that. You see, I don't think the machine worked, because I have no new memories of the blue orb."

Matt looked at me with a frown on his face. "Are you blackmailing me for the information? You do realize that you have no bargaining power here. You will tell me the information I want to know or I'll be forced to become unpleasant."

"I'm serious! Do a lie detector test or something. I'm telling you, the machine didn't work. There are no new memories unlocked in my head."

Matt punched the wall with anger. Then the woman who had attached the sensors to Tristan walked over to Matt.

"Admin Matt, there is a possibility that it could take some time for the memories to be unlocked. Think of it like clearing away fog. It takes some time of the sun shining on fog to make it go away. We've hit the kid's memories with the ray, now it might just take some time for the fog to clear out."

Matt looked at her, then over at Tristan. "I guess that makes some sense. Okay, we'll put the kid back in his room and give it an hour. If he does not tell me where the blue orb is by then, then he is in for a world of hurt." he said, glaring at Tristan. "Oh, and you'll be fired." he told the woman. "Take him away."

The two grunts from before came over to Tristan and ripped the sensors off of him, causing Tristan to wince in pain. Then they undid the straps and tied his hands up again before shoving the gag back in his mouth and leading him back to his room. After they got there, they undid the rope and threw Tristan into the room. One of them threw his shirt in as well. Tristan got up and brushed himself off as the two slammed the door behind him. Tristan put his shirt back on, then began pacing around the room nervously. He had no idea what to do. He was pretty sure that the machine had not worked and there were no memories inside his head to be unlocked. But even if they did suddenly appear to him, should he tell Team Aqua where this orb is? He had no idea what they wanted with Kyogre, but it couldn't be good. Plus he had not forgotten about Flannery being locked away in the facility somewhere. All in all, things did not look good for Tristan…

--

Gary stood with Officer Jenny, Gabrielle, and Sophie at the airport as the League helicopters landed. There were three of them and Gary assumed each held several trainers. Sure enough after landing, each helicopter was shown to be carrying four people. Gary recognized Wattson and Brawly, as well as Steven from his prominence as the league champion, but he was unfamiliar with the rest. He assumed they were gym leaders and elite four members and other powerful trainers. He leaned over to Gabrielle.

"So could you tell me who they all are?"

"Sure. You know Wattson and Brawly from your gym battles. Then that's Norman- he's the Petalburg gym leader. That's the elite four- Phoebe, Sidney, Glacia, and Drake. Then that's the current champion Steven. Then there's Kyle, the Orchid Town gym leader- he's Tristan's best friend just so you know. Then there's the current top coordinator Claudia, and I don't really know who those other two people are."

"Wow, that's a lot of high ranking people."

"Well, it is a shot to bring down Team Aqua, so I guess they're going all out."

The twelve new arrivals made their way over to the group of four. Norman went over to Sophie to see how she was doing while Steven and several others talked to Jenny. Kyle meanwhile made his way over to Gabrielle and Gary.

"I should be surprised that you're here but for some reason I'm not." he said to Gabrielle.

"Shut up Kyle. By the way, this is Gary. He's been travelling with Tristan."

"Nice to meet you. Tristan told me he was travelling with Professor Oak's grandson." he said, shaking Gary's hand.

"I'm the one and only." He replied. Gary was surprised to see how similar to Tristan that Kyle looked. The only big differences were that Kyle had black hair and brown eyes and looked like he worked out much more than Tristan.

"Well I don't know about you two, but I'm ready to do some serious ass-kicking. No one gets away with doing something to Tristan and Flannery."

"Ahh yes, I know how you would hate to see something happen to your dear Flanny-wanny." Gabrielle said mockingly. Kyle immediately turned a few shades redder.

"Yeah well, I know you're only here so you can get Tristan to like you as much as you like him. I guess we're even." Now it was Gabrielle's turn to blush. Meanwhile, Gary was confused.

"Wait, Flannery likes Tristan. The way she acted when we were in Lavaridge was crazy. And you like Tristan? As in like like?" Gary asked Gabrielle incredulously.

"Well…" Gabrielle said.

"What did Flannery do in Lavaridge?" Kyle asked.

"She was fawning all over him, trying to give him massages, hugging him a lot- it was ridiculous." Gary said. "Tristan was kind of weirded out by it though."

"Well of course he was weirded out. He knows how I feel about her." He said matter of factly.

"Hey you three, are you ready to move out? Let's go." Steven called out. Everyone made their way to the docks to get on two high powered speedboats. Everyone had agreed that going by air would be way too easy to track by Team Aqua and it would be hard to land several helicopters at the base without getting attacked immediately. So they rode on the boats to try and gain the advantage of surprise. It would take them about one hour to get there…

--

Tristan was still pacing around his room when he heard people at his door. Now he was starting to actually panic for the first time since he was taken. The two grunts from before came in followed by Matt. He shut the door behind him.

"So Mr. Chillar. I hope those cobwebs have shaken themselves loose enough to give you those memories back. Are you going to tell me where the blue orb is?"

"Um…yes. Yeah everything has come clear to me. I saw the whole thing in my head. It's a blue sphere thing right?" Matt was looking at him intently now.

"Yes it is." He replied.

"Yeah, it's in Meteor Falls." Tristan said, hoping beyond hope that Matt would buy it.

"The orb's at Meteor Falls?" he asked. "Of course, that makes perfect sense." He said, getting up and starting to walk around excitedly. Tristan inwardly sighed in relief. "It makes so much sense, that must be why we thoroughly explored Meteor Falls last year." He said, turning towards Tristan angrily. "Clearly you don't realize the magnitude of the situation you are in. Boys, take him to his new room. And why don't you give him the special on the way." He said as he stormed out.

The grunts advanced on Tristan and tackled him hard into the ground. They tied his hands behind his back and put shackles around his ankles that barely allowed him to walk. They then tied another rope around his neck which one turned into a makeshift leash to hold onto Tristan. They then proceeded to pull Tristan by the rope around his neck down the hallway. This made things very difficult for Tristan since the two grunts were walking normally and he was having trouble keeping up due to the shackles. Before long he tripped and fell. The rope tightened so much around his neck he could barely breathe. The grunts just kept walking, dragging Tristan along the floor. Tristan just focused on putting all his effort into breathing. He was able to stand up again when they entered an elevator and regain some control over this breathing. When the elevator opened, he did a better job with keeping up with the grunts. Maybe they were walking slower out of pity.

After going down a couple hallways, they stopped in front of a room. The grunts led Tristan in. It looked like a dungeon. There were stone floors, chains dangling from the walls, and several instruments that looked like they were designed to inflict pain. The grunts sat Tristan down on a wooden chair in the middle of the room and tied him to it. They then went out the door, leaving Tristan alone. He had not realized things were going to get this out of hand as quickly as they did. He warily eyed the chains on the wall as well as the torture stuff, wondering just how far Matt would be willing to go to get Tristan to talk. What truly scared Tristan was that there was no information to be tortured out of him. Which meant Matt might go to extremes in regards to his methods of extracting information. He might wind up being killed. Just as that thought entered Tristan's mind, Matt came in the door.

"This is going to be fun." he said. "I'm going to give you another chance to tell me where the blue orb is. Tell me and there will be no need to go through any pain. We will let you go, I promise. Just tell me what I want to know. And don't lie to me, it will only make things worse."

"I'm telling you, the machine doesn't work. I have no idea where the blue orb is."

Matt looked at him for a second. "You bring this on yourself then."

He took a table from one side of the room and put it near Tristan. He then took Tristan's left arm and outstretched it, laying his hand on the table. He then picked up a baseball bat and walked back to Tristan. While holding Tristan's arm outstretched with his left hand, he swung the bat down with all his might with his right. Tristan realized what was about to happen and tried to wriggle his arm free but couldn't. When the bat made contact he felt the bones in his arm break right in two. He screamed out in pain, his yells echoing around the room. He looked over at his arm and saw half of his forearm and his hand dangling about an inch lower than the rest of his arm. It hadn't broken the skin, which made it look even more horrible. He could literally see the ends of the bones. He looked back at Matt with a shocked look on his face.

"I like to start off with a bang." Matt said. "I've found it gets people's attention and forces them to realize that I'm not fucking around. So, about the location of the blue orb. Where is it?"

"I'm telling you…" Tristan wheezed through the pain, "I don't know. Please stop this."

"Me stop? You're the one that can stop this. Just tell me what I want."

"Please stop, just stop, just stop…"

Matt backhanded Tristan across the face, then punched him in the stomach and kicked him in the chest to get him to shut up. Tristan's breaths came in ragged gasps. Matt then went and untied Tristan from the chair. For a wild second Tristan thought he was being released. Then Matt grabbed him by the hair and dragged him over to a large basin filled with water. He then shoved Tristan's head into the water and held him under for a while. Tristan struggled to get out of his grip to get some air but to no avail- his damaged arm limited his ability to fight back. Just when Tristan thought he was about to die, Matt lifted his head out of the water.

"Did that help refresh your memory of where the orb is?"

All Tristan could reply with was coughing up water before finally shakily answering with a "No. There's no memory."

Matt screamed in anger and flung him against the wall.

"This is gonna hurt." he said. He then took Tristan's broken arm and put it in the shackles that were chained to the wall. Tristan's arm was just hanging straight out from his side. It didn't hurt at all really. Matt then pulled a lever that raised Tristan's arm above his head and then stretched it out some more. Little flashes of light burned in Tristan's eyes as the pain overwhelmed him. He couldn't even scream it hurt so badly. It felt like his arm was going to be ripped in half.

"Let me give you some time to think about your answer to my question." Matt said as he left the room.

**--**

**I warned you!**


	22. Rescue Me

**Thanks to srgeman for reviewing!**

**--**

**Chapter 22-**

"So how many police officers were you able to get to be our back-up Jenny?" Steven asked as they disembarked from the speedboat.

"I basically have about four battalions worth that are going to be circling around the island waiting for my signal to move in. I've also got to three squadrons of air support to keep them from escaping." she replied with a smile. "There's no way we're going to let a single one of them escape." she said with a bit of aggression in her voice.

"Are you ready to kick some ass?" Kyle asked Gary and Gabrielle.

"You better believe it. Just tell me which way I need to be kicking and I'll do the rest." Gabrielle replied, punching a fist into her hand.

"I wonder if I should use Tristan's pokemon to help?" Gary thought aloud.

"Who do you have?" Kyle asked back.

"He had Starmie, Shedinja, Gligar, Lunatone, Swablu, and Lapras."

"Hmmm. We know they have Crawdaunt, and none of those are particularly strong against them. Couldn't he have had a grass type with him?" he asked sarcastically.

"He was talking about catching a Tropius before he was taken." Gary said sullenly.

"Oh. Well that would have been helpful to have." Kyle sighed sadly.

"Hey, keep your spirits up boys. Personally I'd say don't use his pokemon because they won't be focused enough to be battling and you've got to worry about your pokemon. You did get your grandfather on the phone and made some switches right?" Gabrielle asked.

"Better believe it. I pulled out the big guns for this one. I gave him my Shellgon and Pelliper and got him to give me my Scizor, Pinsir, and my pride and joy, my Blastoise." he said proudly.

"Sounds good to me." she said.

"Alright everyone listen up." Steven said, clearing his throat before continuing. "We don't know how many members of Team Aqua are in here so be careful to take good care of your pokemon and not tire them out too quickly. The primary goal here is to get Flannery and Tristan out of there safely, as well as any other hostages they may have. Then we can focus on apprehending the members of Team Aqua. They're on an island, they aren't going anywhere. We are going to travel in four groups of four. We are assuming that there are multiple levels to this complex. When we get in there, we are going to start at the bottom and work our way up. We can flush them out right into our brigade of back-ups. So split up into groups now, and then we'll head in."

Gary, Kyle, and Gabrielle looked at each other and silently committed to being in a group. But they needed a fourth member. Luckily, the elite four had decided to split themselves up and Phoebe decided to go with them.

"Is everyone in groups now?" Steven asked. "Okay, you guys go to the lowest floor you can get to," he said, pointing to Gary's group, "You all take the second up and you take the third up. My group is going to go in first and distract them so that you all can get into the lower levels. Each group takes a walkie-talkie." He said, giving one to a person in each group. "If you get either Flannery or Tristan or if you find something important, let us all know where you found them and what condition they're in. Let's move in."

The groups started walking up a dirt path that led to the building. Gary felt a rush of adrenaline surge through his veins. He had rarely been this eager to get into a fight with someone. It was going to feel good. He looked at the other members of the group. Phoebe had a similar look of determination on her face, but Kyle and Gabrielle had looks that were a mix of anger and worry. Gary felt for them. Both had a person that they cared very deeply for locked away inside, and could be in great peril for all they know or even… Gary shook his head. He couldn't let himself think like that.

He looked at who was in each of the other groups. Steven's group, the one that would be doing the distracting consisted of himself, Norman, Wattson, and Claudia. The group that was going to be right above his consisted of Sophie, Brawly, Drake, and one of the unknowns. The other group had Officer Jenny, the other stranger, Sidney, and Glacia. He hoped that Sophie's group would be able to find Tristan so that she could stop worrying about his safety. When they got to the edge of the trees just out of sight, Steven stopped them.

"Okay everyone, this is it. Give it everything you've got and show them no mercy. Battle smart, and remember the stuff I said earlier. Good luck to all of you. Let's move in." he said, as he calmly began to walk right towards the base.

"Start mobilizing on the island." Officer Jenny said into her radio.

--

Tristan was beginning to lose his mind. The catastrophic amount of pain that was radiating through his arm was starting to take its toll. He began to think, if he could just pull hard enough and tear all of the skin and muscle away where the break was, the pain might stop. Just as he was getting ready to do so, Matt walked back in.

"Ahhh, I can tell that your sanity is starting to go." Matt said with a grin. He walked over and released Tristan's arm from the chains. Tristan pulled his arm up to his chest and looked it over. It was heavily bruised from his wrist to his elbow. He knew he was probably bleeding profusely under the skin. He looked up and saw Matt pull out a syringe.

"This is a high dose pain killer. Just tell me where the orb is and I will give it to you." he said, waving it in the air in front of Tristan.

Tristan stared longingly at the syringe, but felt his stomach drop when he remembered that he had no such knowledge. He fell to his knees and began to cry.

"Please, please stop this. I don't know how to make this any clearer. I don't know anything. Please stop the pain. I'm begging you. Please." he sobbed. Matt stared down at Tristan with a look of disgust on his face. He walked over to Tristan and kicked him in the face. Tristan could feel his nose break and saw blood begin to run down his front.

Matt shook his head. "You still don't get it do you. I didn't think it would come to this." he said. "Bring her in!" he shouted. The door opened and a grunt entered with Flannery. She looked at Tristan and gasped in shock at the state he was in.

"What have you done to him?" she shrieked at Matt.

"He's brought all of this on himself." he said calmly. "And unfortunately for you, he's about to be the cause of a lot of pain on your part now." he said as he grabbed Flannery and tied her to a chair.

"Stop this Matt. Do what you want to me but leave her alone." Tristan said, shakily getting to his feet. He felt woozy, but was determined not to let him harm a completely innocent friend of his.

"Well gee Tristan, I really wish I could, but you just won't talk to me." Matt pouted in a horribly sarcastic voice. "I wouldn't dare punch a girl. So instead, I'm going to take a different tactic." He said, pulling out a new syringe. "This is a chemical that will induce severe amounts of pain if I inject it into someone." He pulled up Flannery's sleeve. "So how about talking to me Tristan before something bad happens to fire girl here?"

Flannery held her head up in defiance. "Don't tell this bastard anything Tristan." she said, spitting on Matt for good measure. Matt was not amused in the least and was about to cause physical harm to her when a grunt burst into the room.

"Admin Matt, the base is under attack." he said clutching his side and breathing heavily. Matt whipped around. "What?"

"It's a bunch of people with the league. Gym leaders, the elite four, Steven Stone- it's a whole bunch of them with a whole bunch of powerful pokemon. They're heading this way."

Matt glared at Tristan and Flannery. "I'll be back for you after we take care of this little nuisance." he sneered and walked out the door. Tristan fell to the ground. They were saved.

--

"Victreebel, finish that Crawdaunt with a Razor Leaf." Kyle commanded. His powerful looking grass type let loose a swarm of leaves that left the Team Aqua member's Crawdaunt fainted on the ground. The grunt recalled his pokemon and took off running.

"Good work buddy. Now let's get down to the bottom floor guys." he called out as he recalled his pokemon to its pokeball. The four of them continued down the stairwell they had found once Steven's group had cleared out the first wave of Aqua defenders. Steven had gained an extra recruit for his group when Winona had swooped in on her Altaria. There were now five people fighting the Aqua members up top. So far, Gary's group had run into minimal resistance. They went down a few more flights of stairs before reaching the bottom. Gabrielle opened the door and peered out. The coast was clear and she signaled the others that it was safe to come out. The hallway that they were in looked like it split off into several other hallways, and each had a number of doors in them.

"How are we going to be able to find them with all of this area to cover?"

"I think I can help." Gabrielle said, pulling out a pokeball. It contained her Gardevoir.

"Gardevoir, can you use your powers to try and find Tristan or Flannery for me?" she asked. Gardevoir nodded and then closed its eyes in concentration. It knew how important Tristan was to Gabrielle. After a few seconds, Gardevoir's eyes shot open and looked at Gabrielle. It had seen the poor condition Tristan was in and knew they would have to hurry to get him out. Gardevoir beckoned the group to follow it. They took off down one of the hallways. As they rounded one of the turns, there was a grunt standing there with a Crawdaunt and a Golbat.

"End of the line." he said.

"I'll deal with this guy, you all keep going." Phoebe said, calling out her Sableye and Dusclops. The other three and Gardevoir turned around and took another route. After turning down a couple more hallways, they got to one that was filled with doors that looked like they were straight out of a dungeon. And down in front of one of the doors stood two burly looking Aqua grunts- the same two that had been spending the past day man-handling Tristan and Flannery. They turned towards the group and smiled.

"We figured you'd find your way here. But it's in vain. No one escapes from Aqua custody." the one said.

"Now either turn around or get ready for a battle." the other said, pulling out a pokeball.

"You're in luck. I've been looking for an outlet for my anger." Gabrielle said, pulling out three pokeballs. The two boys did the same. "How many of our pokemon do you think you can take on? I'd say we have at least twenty between the three of us." she said, not bothering to hide the malice in her voice. The two grunts smiles slid right off of their faces.

"Screw this. I think it's escape time." the one said to the other.

"I agree." he replied. Both turned to run away.

"Gardevoir, send them off with a nice psychic blast." Gabrielle said. Gardevoir charged up and let loose a powerful wave of psychic energy that hit the two grunts in the back and sent them hurtling right into a concrete wall. They collapsed on the ground in a heap and didn't get back up. The three ran to the door they had been guarding.

"They have to be in here." Gary said. He pulled and pushed on the door and found it was locked. "We'll have to break it down." he said. He pulled out a pokeball and called out his Shellgon. "Shellgon, Headbutt the door." he said. Shellgon backed up and then charged with all its might at the door, blasting it into little pieces. The three looked into the room and found it empty.

"It's empty. It was a decoy." Gabrielle said, nearly crying in disappointment. Her Gardevoir tugged on her sleeve. She looked up and saw it pointing at the next door down. "Are you saying they're in there?" she asked, elated again.

"Shellgon, break down that door." Gary said. Shellgon complied with the order and broke down the door. The three ran into the room…

--

Tristan's head was spinning and he was starting to get tunnel vision. Flannery had been encouraging him to stay awake but he was starting to feel drowsy. Just before he blacked out, he saw the door blasted open by a Shellgon. Gabrielle, Gary, and Kyle came rushing into the room. Gabrielle and Gary immediately ran over to Tristan while Kyle rushed over to Flannery.

"Oh Mew, what have they done to you Tristan." Gabrielle asked as the knelt next to him, tears starting to form in her eyes. Gary meanwhile was on the walkie-talkie.

"This is Gary Oak. We've found Flannery and Tristan, repeat we have found Flannery and Tristan. Flannery is fine, but Tristan needs medical attention immediately- he's unconscious and has suffered a lot of injuries." he said, noticing the dried blood around his mangled nose, the black eye, the completely bruised left forearm, the marks around his neck, and the various cuts and bruises over the rest of his body.

Kyle untied Flannery and immediately enveloped her in a hug. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine; it's Tristan I'm worried about. They were…horrible to us." she said, shivering.

"Hey, it's over now. We're getting you out of here." he said soothingly as he hugged her again. She sobbed into his shoulder as he stroked her hair to calm her down. He also looked over at Tristan with great concern. He watched as Gabrielle tried to clean off some of the blood from his face while Gary did his best to secure his arm. He looked bad.

"Let's get him out of here." Gabrielle said.

"I'll carry him." Kyle said, releasing Flannery, who had stopped crying. He knelt down next to Tristan and looked over the battered body of his best friend. He felt rage at these fanatics course through his veins but calmed himself down and picked Tristan up in his arms making sure to be as careful as possible with him.

Kyle had been best friends with Tristan since they were in the same class at the academy in Rustboro, a class that had also contained Flannery and Gabrielle. Both had made elaborate plans back then to be the greatest gym leaders in the whole Hoenn region. When Tristan had been journeying in Kanto and Johto, Kyle had visited him often and they did quite a bit of the travelling together. Kyle had always been physically stronger than Tristan, much to the latter's dismay, and he sometimes acted a bit protectively of his friend in tense situations. Sometimes though he would mess with Tristan by picking him up and throwing him into a lake or sitting him on his shoulder while Tristan hung on for dear life while screaming at Kyle to put him down. He never thought he would see Tristan like this though.

Gabrielle's Gardevoir led the group back to the staircase they had gone down. The group quickly climbed the stairs and walked to the open area they had entered the building in and then out the door. There they saw a big guy recalling a fallen Mightyena while Steven stood there with his Metagross and Norman with his Slaking.

"It's over Matt. We've taken almost all of your men into custody and you have nowhere to go."

Matt stood there for a second, and then began to laugh maniacally. "You'll never take down the illustrious Team Aqua!" he said, before running towards the cliff and jumping off. Steven and Norman ran over to the edge and looked over to see Matt land next to a giant Team Aqua submarine. He hopped in and the sub disappeared under the water. Norman pounded the ground in anger.

"I can't believe he got away." he said angrily as he got up.

Meanwhile, Kyle had set Tristan down on a stretcher so that the medics could take care of him. Sophie was there, crying both in joy at finding him and sorrow at his condition. Steven and Norman walked over to the group that was huddled around Tristan.

"Look what that delinquent and his thugs did to my godson." Norman spat angrily as he watched the medics prepare to load Tristan into a helicopter that was to transport him to the hospital in Mauville. "If I ever cross paths with him again, he'll be beyond sorry."

"I second that." Steven said. He turned to Flannery. "Are you okay? Do you wish to be seen by the medics?" he asked.

"I'm fine, they never did anything to me." she replied. The medics loaded Tristan into the helicopter. Gabrielle, Gary, and Sophie got in with him while the rest of the group stood by and watched and prayed silently that Tristan would be okay.

--

**As always, review and tell me what you think!** **I'm so close to 50...**


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